


Entanglement

by lastincurableromantic



Series: The Slow Path [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-28
Updated: 2013-10-30
Packaged: 2017-12-09 20:49:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 41
Words: 141,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/777842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastincurableromantic/pseuds/lastincurableromantic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Part Human. As the part human Doctor and Rose Tyler take the next tentative steps in their relationship, they have to confront a new threat to the planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is the sequel to Part Human. If you haven't read that, I strongly suggest you read it first.

A public car park at midnight near a London underground station on a Thursday night would seem an unlikely spot for a meeting, but he received the call on _that_ mobile, the one especially purchased for just this situation. Despite waking him from a sound sleep, he had immediately gotten out of bed and made his way there, as he always did. Not to do so never occurred to him. 

He had parked in a completely different car park near a completely different station and took the underground to where he needed to be. Taking the tube at that hour always made him a bit nervous, as the train was not completely empty. There were usually groups of people returning home from parties and other nights on the town, the occasional drunk sitting alone half asleep, but there was usually one person, usually a man but occasionally a woman, who raised his hackles and looked like he either needed to be sectioned or in prison.

This time was no different.

There was a raucous group of teens, either pissed or high, possibly both, sitting near the door. There was the usual drunken businessman, probably risking the wrath of his wife for returning home so late. There was the couple, tourists most likely as they had the look of Americans, who were probably returning to a hotel. There was one couple, off to the side, looking incongruously as if they were returning from the theater because they were much too well dressed for the underground. And then there was the one, sitting in the corner, surveying everyone, with long, dirty hair and far too many tattoos who looked like he had just been released from prison.

He had chosen to sit near the well-dressed couple.

He had not been sleeping well recently and between the bumping and shaking of the railway car and the lateness of the hour he almost fell asleep. Had it not been for the need to watch for his stop, and keep an eye on the tattooed man in the corner, he was certain he would have dropped off. As it was, for most of the trip he had to force his eyes to remain open. The closer he got to his destination, however, nervousness over the meeting made him become more alert.

The kidnapping of Rose Tyler had been a mistake, a stupid, foolish mistake. Yes, they had learned vital information, and the information was significant and far reaching and possibly crucial. However, they might have eventually learned the information anyway given enough time, and what they had lost was far more significant than what they had found out.

And now the wrong people would be suspicious. And would be on guard.

He had tried to contain the situation as best he could, had managed to handle it quickly without prior warning, and done as much damage control as possible. He had done the best he could given the circumstances, but he wasn’t sure the others would see it that way. And he knew, from observation rather than experience thankfully, how they handled things. On the other hand, if he had had the experience of them handling him, he wouldn’t even be aware of it. If he was lucky.

Eventually the train pulled into the station and he got off and made his way to the nearby car park. As usual, there were few cars there, possibly only a dozen or so. By the light provided by the streetlamps, he easily found the correct one. It was a nondescript older model sedan, painted some sort of dark color, with enough dirt on the number plates to obscure the numbers. It was a distance away from the others, far from the lights and some distance away from the entrance. When he found it, he opened the passenger side door and got in.

“It’s taken care of,” he said without preamble, trying not to show his anxiety. He looked straight ahead. It was an unwritten rule between the two of them that he do so at all of their meetings. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The person in the driver’s seat always managed to sit in shadows at all of their meetings and usually wore a hooded sweatshirt. It didn’t really matter. He knew exactly who was summoning him to these meetings, but the other preferred the illusion of anonymity and so he went along with the pretense.

“Are you certain?” the other asked quietly.

“Absolutely. I made certain of it before I dumped her off. Hallett remembers nothing of the past several years.”

“Is there any chance of her recovering her memory?”

“No,” he said flatly. “None whatsoever. Ret-con is extremely effective in that regard. I am unaware of even a single case of anyone recovering memories lost due to it being administered.”

“So where is she now?”

“In Torchwood’s medical wing. She’s being monitored ‘round the clock for now. They’re trying to determine the cause of her memory loss.”

“And what of her assistant, Callahan was it? What about him?”

“Sean Callahan is being held in the medical wing as well,” he said. “Callahan knows nothing. To be safe, he was Ret-conned as well, but Hallett never told him about my involvement, let alone yours.”

The other was silent. And then finally, “And no one suspects?”

He paused before answering. “Tyler suspects, but he can’t prove anything. But he trusts me and he would have no way of knowing about you.”

“What about his daughter, or that boyfriend of hers, Smith?” The other’s voice contained a hint of concern. “Do either of them suspect anything?”

“I don’t know. Possibly.” He surreptitiously glanced at the occupant in the driver’s seat before continuing. “Rumor has it that they are too wrapped up in each other to even notice a bomb going off.”

“Was Hallett’s information correct about him?”

“We can’t verify that. At initial glance he appears to be who, and what, he says he is.”

“What about that report from Torchwood Three?”

“We can’t verify that either. Hallett said she saw it, but we’ve been unable to locate the records. We can’t even be certain there was a report.”

“Still, we best take precautions. This was set in motion months ago, and we will not let one person stand in our way, no matter who, or what, he is. I want you to get me a copy of everything you have on him, no matter how insignificant it may seem.” 

“I’ll take care of it,” he said.

“If Hallett saw the report, she may have downloaded it. If she did, it might still be on her computer.” The other leaned back, arms crossed. “We need that computer.”

“Agreed. They won’t have left it lying about, so they probably have already archived it. As well as anything else of hers that Torchwood has. If they have, it will just be a matter of retrieving it.” He glanced over at the person in the driver’s seat. “That explosion near Griffith Street, was it really a gas main blowing?”

“There is no evidence to the contrary,” the other answered, “but both the timing and the location seem too coincidental to be plausible. We already know that the lorry accident at the substation was caused by Torchwood. A Burpee’s Baby Formula lorry? They didn’t even try to hide their involvement. There’s every reason to believe that the explosion was Torchwood as well. If it was, that would mean they knew about the beacon. And if they knew about the beacon….” There was a pause, and then, “Is there any way you can find out?”

He grew silent as a list of known gossips at Torchwood ran through his head. It was a long list. “Perhaps,” he answered finally. “I’ll try to look into it. But it may take a little time. I need to be discrete. I don’t want anyone to trace any of this back to me.” He glanced quickly at the person in the driver’s seat and then looked away. “And if they trace it to me, they might be able to trace it to you,” he warned.

The other nodded. “Quite right. Things are coming to a head, and it is essential that none of this is traced to me.”

“I understand,” he replied.

They fell into an uneasy silence. When the other continued, it was with a tone of frustration that was so completely out of character that he was startled. 

“This whole business is turning into a nightmare.” 

“So what do we do?” he asked.

“We start over. And this time we do it right.”


	2. Chapter One

Late Thursday night, Rose Tyler watched as the part human/part Time Lord Doctor typed rapidly into the computer in her stepdad's office at the Tyler mansion. It had only been a matter of hours since he had told her who he was, hours since she had realized that, despite a completely separate body that had been created out of a Time Lord hand, regeneration energy and a touch of human DNA, somehow, in some completely incredibly _alien_ way, he was the same man that she had met at Henrik's so long ago. The same man who had blown up her job. The same man she had traveled with in the TARDIS. The same man she had fallen in love with. And miraculously, beyond any of her comprehension, this incredible part human still mostly alien man had said he loved her, too. Her Doctor. Her third Doctor. Her new, new, new Doctor.

It had been just over a week since they had been dropped off, she was no longer saying dumped off, not even in her mind, at Dårlig Ulv-Stranden by her second Doctor. The full Time Lord Doctor had left them in the parallel universe to live out their lives together on the slow path, sharing their matching lifespans and having the one adventure he said he could never have, a normal life. She now realized he had truly been trying to give her a gift, not just pawning off a copy of himself on her that she could take care of, although that was how it had sounded at the time. Instead, he had been trying to give her a portion of himself that could stay with her for her forever.

She hadn't realized that at first. She hadn't understood that this man with her truly was the Doctor. For more than a week she had struggled to understand exactly who he was, and for more than a week he had struggled to make her understand. Finally he had explained that he was sort of a sideways regeneration formed from the metacrisis, which had prevented the full Time Lord from having a full regeneration, but had also resulted in the creation of a part Time Lord/part human body with a portion of his soul inside. Unfortunately, it had also resulted in Donna Noble receiving a copy of the Doctor's mind, which the full Time Lord Doctor had needed to remove. He had also needed to remove from Donna's mind all memory of him and their travels together, because if Donna remembered, her mind might burn up and she could die.

With Donna back home and all of her adventures forgotten, something Rose found heartbreaking, she wondered if the Time Lord Doctor had found someone new to travel with. She hoped he did because she, better than anyone else in both universes, knew how much he needed someone, someone to be with, someone to hold his hand, someone to stop him before he went too far. And she was afraid that he didn't have anyone. She was afraid he was traveling alone. And her heart broke for him because, despite how things had ended between them, despite how angry and hurt she had been and still was sometimes, she still loved him and knew she always would. Just as she had never completely stopped loving and missing her first Doctor, him with the big ears and nose and piercing blue eyes and leather jacket that she had first fallen in love with.

Looking over at the man at the computer, she wondered a little about herself. How could she miss someone who was still with her, who was sitting just across the room from her? She finally decided it was built into her humanness. She wasn't a Time Lord. It wasn't encoded into her DNA to only see him as one person. She tried, and intellectually she knew it to be true, and in her heart she knew it was true as well. But there was a tiny, rebellious part of her brain that saw them as different people sometimes.

And it didn't help, the fact that in the metacrisis the Doctor had up and accidentally split himself into two people.

But regardless of the fact that she had not truly understood who this Doctor was, she had fallen in love with him. Again.

Thinking back on the beach, she was almost embarrassed by her reaction to him. For more than a week she had refused to even think about the events in Norway, but now she allowed herself to return to them in her mind. When this Doctor had told her he loved her, when the Time Lord Doctor would not, she had looked in his eyes for a moment, and in that moment she had thought she had seen… something. Something more than just his love for her. For an instant, behind the brown of his brand new eyes, she had thought she had seen something ancient and alien and familiar. She had thought she had seen _him_. And she had instinctively responded.

Until she had heard the TARDIS leave.

And she had realized that not only had the full Time Lord Doctor left her behind, he had left without saying goodbye. And in that instant she had doubted what she had seen and what she had felt when this Doctor had looked at her.

But now she realized her first instincts were correct. The man who had stayed with her was the Doctor. The same Doctor whom she had promised forever to. The same Doctor who had taken her hand in the basement of Henrik's and told her to run.

The same Doctor she had fallen in love with. Now, three times.

Rose smiled as she watched him from across the room. He was typing so rapidly his fingers seemed to be almost a blur over the keyboard. She had noticed before that his typing speed was unbelievably fast and was continually amazed by it. She didn't remember the other Doctor ever being able to type that quickly. Not that she remembered him doing all that much typing. If ever.

"We really need to get you your own computer," she said to him. "Before you break every other computer we own." He had already broken her EPad, she had decided that morning when she had tried to use it. When she had turned it on, the images flew past so rapidly her eyes couldn't see anything but a blur most of the time. And he somehow hadn't managed to return the screen to a normal speed.

That's when he had decided to use Pete's computer.

He was currently trying to wipe from existence any computer records of himself as known as Dr. John Noble Smith, beyond the basic birth certificate, driver's license, and National Health Insurance card her stepdad had acquired for him that were the basic forms of identification he needed to exist on this planet. He was even planning on wiping out his Torchwood IDs as soon as he could be certain he wouldn't need them anymore.

And he was especially wiping out any medical data on him that was online. Torchwood Four's doctor, Frank Collins, had given him a very basic physical when he had first arrived, and Owen Harper, Torchwood Three's doctor, had helped him do a thorough analysis of his body. The first record had had no information in it that would indicate he was anything other than human, but the second had had detailed information in it on his physiology, particularly information on his brain and triple-helix genetics that clearly identified him as alien. The records had been deleted by Owen, but a former coworker of Rose's, Lisa Hallett, had been able to retrieve them and had tried to blackmail Rose with them. Rose knew he was wiping both sets of records out so that couldn't happen again.

And then she knew he was searching for records on 'the Doctor'.

He knew there were some reports on his previous visit to this planet, when they, along with Pete, Mickey, Jake Simmonds, and Angela Price, had defeated John Lumic and his Cybermen. Rose knew he hated to do that, destroy those records, because they were the only records in existence that credited Angela Price for her role in wiping out the first wave of Cybermen. And she had lost her life doing so. But he had to do it. No one could know that an alien called the Doctor even existed beyond her family and a very few close friends. And it was essential no one could associate the new Dr. John Noble Smith with the alien that had helped save the planet.

Not if he and her family were to be safe from xenophobic people on the planet. Particularly xenophobic people in the government. And after the long war with the Cybermen, there were a lot of xenophobic people on the planet.

But the Doctor was brilliant, although she rarely told him that, his ego was big enough as it was, and Rose knew he'd be able to wipe out all computer records of himself easily.

"Done," he said, both finally and emphatically as he spun the desk chair around and grinned at her. "Well, all except for the Torchwood ID. And that I'll do as soon as we head to Cardiff. How soon are we going?"

Rose was being transferred to take over Torchwood Three. The head position there was frequently vacant, and the current temporary head, Gwen Cooper Williams, was seven months gone in her first pregnancy and needed to go on maternity leave soon. Rose had been given the job for a number of reasons, but two of them stood out. One, she had worked in that office before and was highly qualified, and two, she was the only qualified person who was willing and able to put up with Torchwood Three's difficult doctor, Owen Harper.

The Doctor, her Doctor she thought with a grin, was possibly more anxious for the move than she was. She suspected it was because in Cardiff, near the Rift, the little chunk of TARDIS coral his other self had given him would be able to more easily get the energy it needed to grow. And she knew the Doctor desperately wanted to get started on growing a new TARDIS.

And, she suspected, or more hoped really, it was also because if they were living in Cardiff, they'd no longer be living with her parents. Her mum in particular. Her mum had managed to acquire impeccable timing in the past few hours in as far as every time they even got close enough to kiss, she'd enter the room and break them apart. Ironic, because when the Doctor first arrived in the parallel world, her mum had told her to give this new Doctor a chance.

"Well, we can't go to Cardiff yet," Rose said in amusement. "We've got things to do here."

"Like what?" he protested.

"Like pack. And like figure out where we're going to stay when we get there," she told him. "We can't just show up and live in the Hub."

"Jack does. Did," the Doctor said. "Did and may still."

Rose knew that their friend Jack Harkness was the head of Torchwood Three in their home universe.

"Seriously?" Rose asked in surprise and the Doctor nodded. She pulled a face. "Yeah, well, maybe he did but that doesn't mean I want to," Rose told him. "Not even for a night. Not only is it a mess and crowded with junk, there's people walking in and out of it at all hours of the day and night. You think we have no privacy here…."

"I take your point," he said. There were a lot of reasons he wanted to make the move to Cardiff, but one of the biggest reasons was to have additional privacy with Rose. "Well, we could stay in a hotel for a few days or so while we look for a place."

"We'll have to. But it may take longer than that to find a flat, even in Cardiff," she warned him.

"Well, actually," he said slowly, "I thought we could buy a place. A house. Not a flat."

"A house?" she said incredulously. She stared at him in shock. He wanted to buy a house? And together? That was beyond such a huge step that for a moment her brain felt like it had shorted out. Searching for some sort of coherent response, she said the first thing that came to mind. "I, uh, I thought you were afraid of getting a mortgage."

"Well, not so much afraid as repelled," he answered with a laugh. "But that was before. We don't exactly have the TARDIS to live in right now and we need to live somewhere." His voice became more serious as he continued. "Anyway, I wasn't talking about getting a mortgage. I was talking about buying something outright. Someplace outside Cardiff proper, near the Rift but not on top of it, with enough room for a growing TARDIS. Can't exactly work on the TARDIS in a flat. Not only will there be not enough room, but I don't want to have to explain what I'm doing to nosy neighbors."

"How would we afford that?" she asked, staring at him. She was still spun by the idea of buying a house with him. With walls and carpets and doors and everything. "Cardiff is cheaper than London, but a place like you're talking about is going to take a lot of money. Money we don't have. I know Dad would be thrilled to buy a place for us, but I don't think either one of us want to take anything that big from him."

"You're right there," he agreed. Pete Tyler had been extremely generous with him, with the both of them, really, and he already felt indebted to the man and didn't want to impose on him any more than he had to. "Rose, you don't think I dropped myself off here _completely_ empty-handed, do you?" he asked her, referring to his other self, the Time Lord Doctor, in the first person.

"Well, yeah," she said. "You came with the clothes on your back and a load of junk in your pockets. You didn't even have a sonic screwdriver with you. And don't forget, when we met, I'm the one who had to pay for our chips when we went out on our first date. You didn't have any money."

"You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

"Nope," she said with a grin, popping the "p". "You still owe me ten quid from Queen Vicky. You never did pay me for that."

He chuckled at the memory of their trip to Scotland when they had met Queen Victoria.

"Besides, how much do you think you're gonna get for a clockwork mouse and a yo-yo?" she continued. When they had first arrived back in the parallel world, his suit had needed cleaning so she had pulled everything out of his pockets. Rose was referring to two of the more valuable things she had noticed.

"Don't forget the fake vampire teeth." The Doctor grinned.

"Oh yeah, how could I forget those?" she asked. "Why did you have them in your pocket anyway?"

"Donna and I were going to go to a party. It was fancy dress and that was my costume," he told her.

"That was it? Fake vampire teeth? Your blue suit and fake vampire teeth?" She burst out laughing and was reminded of the time she had visited Cardiff in 1869 with his ninth self. "Is that anything like 'I've changed my jumper'? Couldn't you even manage a cape or something?"

"I had my coat, too," he protested. He sighed, remembering his long, brown trench coat which was still with his other self in their original universe. "I miss that coat. Janis Joplin gave me that coat, you know."

"Yeah, I heard," she said dryly. She rolled her eyes.

He shot her a look. "Besides, did the whole cape thing back in my third life." He shuddered. "Not doin' that again."

She stared at him incredulously. A cape thing? She knew about the fifteen foot scarf, but a cape? There was still so much about him she didn't know, for all that he had been so open recently.

"A cape? You wore a cape?"

"Yep. And that wasn't the worst of it," he continued, grimacing slightly. "Back then I wore velvet and ruffles. Not all the time, mind you…. Well, the velvet _was_ all the time."

"Ruffles? You mean…." She gestured with her hands to the neck of her top, wiggling her fingers. "Ruffles ruffles?"

He nodded. "Velvet smoking jackets and ruffled shirts. And a cape."

She stared at him. Oddly, she could see him in velvet, and of course it wasn't _this_ him, but still…. All of a sudden an image appeared in her mind of her first Doctor, the one with the piercing blue eyes, strong features, Northern accent and leather jacket, in velvet, ruffled shirts and a cape, and her brain felt like it had shorted out again. There was no way. Not in any universe. That him wouldn't have even worn the pinstriped suits.

"Let me get this straight," she said incredulously. "You wore velvet jackets, ruffled shirts and a cape. And you actually went out that way? On the street and everything?"

"Oi, it wasn't that bad," he protested. "It wasn't my best look, I admit, but it wasn't as bad as that Technicolor monstrosity I wore in my sixth life." He shuddered and pulled a face. "I like to think I was color blind back then." Of course that didn't explain the cat badges he wore with it, he thought.

"Oh, God, I remember that jacket," Rose said. She had seen it in the TARDIS wardrobe once. "Stuff of nightmares that was."

"Yeah, that was probably the worst," the Doctor agreed. "Although the fifteen foot scarf and the celery weren't that much better."

"Celery?" she asked, staring at him. She quickly covered her mouth, trying not to laugh.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Yeah, well…." He yanked on the lobe of his ear and looked uncomfortable. "Put it down to the questionable tastes of youth."

"Well, aren't I lucky then that I ended up getting this version of you," she said.

He was wearing one of his new suits, a dark blue pinstriped one with a coordinating tee and trainers. His blue suit from the TARDIS was still being cleaned. He had worn that one while they had been blowing up a beacon (and accidentally blowing up all the surrounding buildings) and it had gotten covered in so much dirt, ash and cement dust it had looked grey.

"I like the pinstriped suits. Very classy. Although…." She crossed over to him and sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. He raised his eyebrows and slowly smiled. Their relationship had certainly changed if she was comfortable enough to just come and sit on his lap. He automatically wrapped his arms around her waist and she smirked at him. "You know that leather jacket you used to wear?" she said. "Now _that_ was sexy."

"Yeah?" he asked in a low voice that sent shivers up her spine. "Maybe I should get another one. You think?"

"I dunno," she replied flirtatiously. She grinned openmouthed, her tongue just touching her upper teeth. "Maybe you should."

The Doctor grinned back at her, his own smile an unconscious reflection of hers, his tongue curled to touch his top teeth. He pulled her in for a kiss which quickly deepened and became passionate. As he pulled her close, she moved her hands to run her fingers through his hair and lightly caress the back of his neck, causing him to shiver in response. They only broke apart at the sound of someone clearing his throat.

Pete Tyler, Rose's stepdad and the parallel version of her dad in her home universe, stood in the doorway.

"I don't mind you two doing a little snogging," he said with a sigh, "but I draw the line at you doing it at my desk."

"Sorry, Dad," Rose said, not the least repentant, while the Doctor took a deep breath, trying to slow his heart rate.

"Rose, I've got a new Torchwood ID for you, to replace the one that Lisa Hallett destroyed," Pete told her, setting it on the desk in front of her. "So when are you two headed over to Torchwood?"

"Oh yeah," Rose answered. "I almost forgot."

The Doctor looked from Rose to Pete and back again, puzzled.

"Dimension cannon," she reminded him. "We've got to dismantle it. I don't really trust anyone else to do it."

The Doctor nodded. That was almost as high a priority as removing all references of him in the internet. And now that that was almost done….

"We'll head over first thing tomorrow, yeah?" Rose said to her stepdad, who nodded.

"That's fine. The sooner the better," Pete answered. "It's getting late, so I'm headed off to bed."

"Yeah, I think we are, too," Rose told him, and Pete left the study.

Rose got up and, grabbing the Doctor's hand, dragged him to his feet. "C'mon," she said, pulling him out of the room.

The main hall held a massive staircase which led to the upper floors of the Tyler home. At the landing, the staircase split into two smaller ones that led to different wings of the mansion. As Rose started up the stairs, the Doctor stopped suddenly and abruptly let go of her hand. "What is it?" she asked, turning to face him.

"Rose, I'm, uh, gonna go work on my sonic for a bit," he said, stammering a little.

"Oh," she said in surprise.

"It's just that, well, it really needs to get done, and I haven't had much of a chance to work on it lately, and we may need it for dismantling the dimension cannon," he said in a rush. "Plus, my body seems to be settling into its new physiology, and I don't appear to need as much sleep as I did. Still need to sleep every day, probably, can't get around that I suppose, but I probably won't need to sleep as much as a typical human, maybe only a few hours a night, and as long as I'm awake I reckon I might as well make productive use of the time."

"Oh. Okay," she said.

"So I guess I best…" he said, with a jerk of his head toward the kitchen and the door leading to the cellar and Pete's workshop.

"Okay. Yeah. Right," she said. "Well, g'night then."

He nodded. "G'night, Rose." He gave her a quick, chaste kiss on the forehead, turned, and walked quickly the other direction, disappearing into the kitchen.

She stared after him. "Well, that was weird," she said to herself. "Wonder what all that was about."

~oOo~

When the Doctor arrived at the workshop, he leaned against the wall and took several slow, deep breaths. Ever since he and Rose had started kissing, snogging really, he was finding it harder and harder to rein himself in, to keep himself under control.

Very late the previous night, _was it only last night_ , he had entered Rose's room while she was sleeping, ostensibly just to convince himself that she was alright after her ordeal, after rescuing herself after her own kidnapping. She had awoken and eventually invited him to share her bed. They had shared a bed before that, the two nights they had been in Cardiff, and occasionally even while they had been traveling in the TARDIS. There had been several memorable occasions when they had had to share a room in a hotel, once even with Jack. That time he had stayed awake all night, acting as a self-appointed chaperone and guardian for Rose, making certain that Jack had slept on the sofa and didn't sneak into the bed with her or something. And of course there were all the times the two of them had been imprisoned overnight, awaiting some sort of trial or another. He usually tried to stay awake, but there had been a few times when he had been so knackered that he just had to sleep a few hours and had ended up sharing with Rose whatever sleeping arrangements had been provided. That had been difficult, being so close to Rose, close enough to touch, to hold, to take in the heady scent of her shampoo and perfume and herself. But back then he had always been able to control himself.

_But not last night. Last night was different_ , he thought, running his hands through his hair in frustration. Last night they had kissed. Last night they had held each other. Last night they had almost made love, and it wasn't due to any self-control on his part that they hadn't. Instead, it was because she had been injured and he had been too exhausted and if those things hadn't been the case….

He took another deep breath and blew it out slowly. _Time and a place_ , he told himself. And this was neither the time nor the place. Not without talking to her more. And _not_ at the mansion. Not with Jackie just down the hall.

He really didn't want Jackie Tyler overhearing them. And he really, really didn't want Rose's mum bursting in on them, in flagrante delicto as it were, despite locked doors. He knew a locked door would never stop Jaqueline Tyler from entering a room. Probably wouldn't even slow her down.

No, he'd really have to manage to control himself while they were still at the mansion, he thought as he crossed to the workbench to work on his sonic. And if that meant cutting back on the snogging, even cutting back on the hugging, well, then, so be it.

It might be torture, he thought, gritting his teeth, but he'd do it.

~oOo~

The house was quiet and dark when he finally climbed the stairs to the second floor. This business of needing to sleep every day was so irritating, he thought. As a full Time Lord, he only needed a few hours of sleep a week, but he could get by with as little as a few hours in a month if necessary. Now, he needed at least 4 to 5 hours a night, every single night. And if he didn't get it, he didn't only feel tired, it also affected his ability to concentrate. How rubbish was that?

Trying not to wake anyone up, he quietly walked down the hall and entered his room. The heavy gold curtains had been drawn back and the windows opened slightly, allowing the cool night air to come in. The waning moon was still almost full, and its reflected light shone in through the windows, making the room almost bright in comparison to the hall.

He flipped the wall switch, and the room flooded with light. It looked the same as it always did. It had been professionally decorated, there was no way Jackie did this, in shades of blue and yellow. A blue and gold duvet covered the large bed on the right side of the room, while the opposite wall held a dresser, a wardrobe and a door which led to the en suite that was shared with Rose's room.

Despite the room being filled with beautiful furnishings, it felt empty. Perhaps because it was, he thought. Out of the last four nights, he had ended up sharing a bed with Rose three of them, under a variety of circumstances, and the fourth night had been the night she had been kidnapped and of course he hadn't slept at all. For most of the past nine hundred years he had slept alone, but now after just a few short days the idea of sleeping by himself, without Rose, was almost unthinkably lonely. Well, he had every intention of changing that, just as soon as they could move out of the mansion. And at times like these he was counting the hours.

He quickly changed into some lightweight, cotton pyjamas, striped of course, and headed into the bathroom. As he finished up with such normal activities as brushing his teeth and using the toilet, he surveyed himself in the mirror. He needed a shave again. And his hair was getting noticeably longer, much more quickly than expected. _Must be the last of the residual regeneration energy affecting hair growth_ , he thought. He hoped. If it were from the regeneration energy, that would completely wear off soon and hair growth would return to normal. But if it were as a result of being part human, he may just be stuck with needing haircuts more frequently and shaving more often.

After finishing up in the bathroom but before heading off to bed, he thought he heard sounds coming from Rose's room. He slowly opened the door a crack.

"Rose?" he called quietly, not wanting to wake her if she were still asleep. "Rose, are you alright?"

"No, please, no," she murmured, tossing and turning, obviously in the midst of a nightmare. "Please don't let it be true. Please, no…"

First opening the door of the en suite that led to her room, the Doctor quickly crossed to her and sat on the edge of her bed.

"Shh, shh," he said softly, his head close to hers. He laid a hand on her shoulder and she began to quiet. "Shh, shh," he repeated.

"Stay with me," she whispered, eyes still closed.

"Always," he said. He got into bed with her, pulled her into his arms and held her for a long while before he fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 2

Early Friday morning Rose woke up in her bed, alone. She had had the weirdest dream. In her dream, she was asleep in bed and the Doctor had come into her room, climbed into bed with her and held her as she slept. It had seemed so real that when she woke up, she had half expected to see him there.

Mildly disappointed at both how the previous evening had ended and that her dream seemed to have been just that, a dream, she quickly showered and dressed. Before heading down to the kitchen, she cracked opened the en suite door that led to the Doctor's bedroom and peeked in. He wasn't there. What's more, the bed didn't look to have been slept in. She told herself it meant nothing. He had said himself that he didn't seem to need as much sleep. He could have easily slept a couple of hours and then gotten up and made his own bed. Or he could have lost track of time working on his new sonic screwdriver.

Then she laughed at herself. Did a Time Lord, even a partial Time Lord, ever completely lose track of time?

In the sunny, yellow kitchen on the ground floor of the Tyler mansion, she found her mum at the cooker doing a fry up and the Doctor leaning against the cabinets, ankles crossed, a mug of tea in his hand. The table was already set for breakfast. After her mum and parallel dad had gotten married, her mum had been uncomfortable with all the staff at the mansion, complaining that they always seemed to be underfoot and that she felt like she was being 'watched' all the time. She had eventually asked that most of them be let go. Pete had been amazed because her mum was so different than the parallel Jackie he had previously been married to. _That_ Jackie had considered it a status symbol and badge of honor to have as large a staff as possible. But Rose's mum had lived on the Estate too long. As much as she enjoyed the lifestyle Pete's money afforded her, and she _really_ , _really_ enjoyed it, she wasn't the type to want to be waited on hand and foot, or at least not _all_ the time. Eventually, she had agreed that the mansion was much too big a place for her to take care of by herself, and that she really didn't like housework anyway, so the number of servants had eventually crept back up. But the staff was still only a fraction of what it once was. There was a gardener, a couple of maids, a part-time nanny and a part-time cook who did evening meals. Their housekeeper, Mrs. McDonald, supervised the staff and occasionally filled in as a substitute cook and nanny. Fancy dinners were catered. Occasionally a car and driver were hired for Jackie, who always insisted she could drive herself, even though no one else wanted her behind the wheel of a car. And Jaqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler _,_ mistress of the mansion, still did the occasional fry up.

"Morning, Rose," the Doctor said brightly as she walked into the room.

"Morning," she replied, crossing over to him. She stood on her toes and gave him a kiss, loving the fact that kissing was something they now did. And often. He grinned in response, the goofy one he always got on his face when he was genuinely happy. She always loved that one, so she kissed him again.

"Oi," her mum protested. "Not in front of the C. H. I. L. D."

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Mum, Tony's not even in the room," Rose told her.

"Oh," Jackie said in surprise. She looked around the room as if he just might be hiding somewhere. "Oh yeah. Guess he's not up yet. Well, in that case, mornin', sweetheart."

"Morning, Mum," Rose said. She crossed over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek before pouring herself a cup of tea. After she crossed back to sit at the table, the Doctor sat down next to her.

"So, did you ever get to bed last night, or did you spend all night on your sonic?" she asked him.

The Doctor looked at her, puzzled. He glanced at Jackie quickly and then back at Rose. "I slept for a little while," he said carefully. "How did you sleep?"

"Pretty good, actually," she answered. "Better than usual."

He stared at her, brow furrowed. He opened his mouth to question her but stopped himself when Jackie brought the food to the table. She sat down next to Rose while her daughter started dishing it out. The Doctor immediately started eating before the food was even finished being put on his plate. Rose glared at him and he froze, fork halfway to his mouth.

"Wha'?" he asked through a mouthful of egg.

"Oi, table manners," Jackie complained, glaring at him. He swallowed.

"Still rude, I guess." He shrugged. He wasn't overly concerned by it.

"And not ginger," Rose replied, her mouth twitching mischievously.

"Don't remind me," he said with a groan. "Now I'm _never_ gonna be ginger."

Jackie stared at them in puzzlement. "What's all this about, then?"

"Oh, just a bit of a private joke," Rose told her, laughing. "One of the first things the Doctor said to me after he regenerated was he asked me if he was ginger. He was real disappointed when I said no."

"Never been ginger. All those years, not once ginger." He started ticking off on his fingers. "I've had straight hair, curly hair, long hair, short hair, been brown, blond, grey, and even had pure white hair once. But never once have I been ginger."

"I could change that, y'know," Jackie offered. "Be easy. Couple hours, tops. Give you a haircut as well. You're lookin' a bit shaggy."

"Uh, no." He looked horrified at the prospect of Jackie Tyler anywhere near his hair with dye or, even worse, sharp implements of any type.

Jackie cocked her head and looked at him appraisingly. "Nah, you wouldn't look good ginger, anyways," she said, shaking her head. She was a former hair stylist and had an eye for that sort of thing. "Your coloring's all wrong for it. Now Rose, on the other hand…."

The Doctor stopped eating and jerked his head over to look at her so quickly, Rose thought he could have gotten whiplash. She saw him stare at her as if he were trying to imagine it. Oh, Lord, he was practically drooling.

"No," she said firmly. "Don't even think about it." She shook a finger at his hopeful expression. "I'm perfectly content with my hair color the way it is, thank you very much."

"Oh, but Rose…" he said pleadingly. His voice trailed off at the glare she was giving him. A look of abject disappointment briefly crossed his face. "Then again, maybe not."

After another suspicious glance at him, Rose tucked into her food. She found it tasted as good as it smelled. Her mother could always do a decent fry-up. It was one of the only bits of cooking she really could do, but for years Rose hadn't had much of an appetite. Just one more thing that had changed since the Doctor had arrived, she thought.

"So," Jackie said, "your dad says you two are off to Cardiff."

The Doctor and Rose exchanged glances at Jackie's sharp tone.

"Uh, yeah," Rose said. "Dad offered me the job in Cardiff and I took it. We need to get out there as soon as possible so that Gwen can go on light duty before the baby comes."

"Well, you have a lot to do around here," her mum informed her. "Someone's got to pack up Mickey's flat. I can do it if you want…" Jackie and Mickey had gotten very close over the years they had spent in the parallel universe.

Rose shook her head. "No, I'll do it. It's the least I can do."

"Well, don't forget," Jackie added, "you can't go to Cardiff until after next Friday."

"Why next Friday?" Rose asked.

"Oh, Rose, don't tell me you've forgotten. The annual Vitex party is next week, and you two are expected to attend." At the blank look on Rose's face, Jackie continued. "You did forget. The biggest party of the year, and you forgot."

"Sorry, Mum," Rose said apologetically. "It's just…."

"Yeah, I know," Jackie said. "You weren't plannin' on goin' cos you weren't plannin' on bein' in this universe. Well, you're still here so you need to go. Him, too," she added, with a jerk of her head at the Doctor. She looked disparagingly at his new blue pinstriped suit, maroon t-shirt, and red Converse. "And it's black tie, so you're not wearin' that."

A stricken look crossed the Doctor's face. "Oh, Jackie, I don't do well in a tux. Bad things happen when I wear a tux."

"Bad things may have happened to old you, but this you is gonna wear a tux and nothin' bad better happen this time." She shook her finger at him. "I'm gonna hold you personally responsible to make sure nothin' bad happens. We've got the entire Vitex board comin', not to mention the President and at least a dozen members of the Congress."

"Harriet Jones is coming?" Rose interjected.

"Oh, yeah," the Doctor said. "You told me she was President over here."

Rose nodded as Jackie continued. "Yeah, she's comin' and so are a whole bunch of celebrities, half of 'em I've never even heard of. We've invited close to three hundred people, which means at least seven hundred will show up, what with all the plus ones and extras that get invited at the last minute.

"Anyway, you both have to be here for the party, which means Rose, you need a new dress, and Doctor, you need a tux. Now Erving's still has all your measurements from when they made up your suits, so I've already ordered you one, but Rose, you need to go shopping for a dress."

"What about the one I wore last time?" Rose asked.

Jackie shook her head. "If you show up in the same dress as last time, people are gonna think we couldn't afford a new dress and they're gonna wonder if Pete's having trouble at Vitex. No, you need a new dress."

Rose sighed loudly. "Mum, I don't even want to go to this thing," she protested.

"Pete needs you there," Jackie said. "So you're goin' and that's that. Oh, and I don't know what you think your plans are for today, but whatever they are, cancel them."

"I promised Dad we'd go over and start to dismantle the dimension cannon this morning."

"I've already spoken to your father before he left and he knows not to expect you. I need you to take me to the doctor."

"What? Why? Is there anything wrong?" Rose asked in concern.

"No, and it's his fault I have to go at all," she said with a glare at the Doctor. "Evidently because I used the dimensional transport one time, one time mind, with this business with the Daleks, _he_ thinks I need a complete workup and he convinced Pete of it."

"Well, just to be on the safe side…" he responded. "But you shouldn't need Rose for that."

"Are you so needy and insecure that you can't be alone for a few hours?" Jackie demanded.

"Oi!" the Doctor protested. "I am not needy and insecure. I'll have you know I am very secure. I am the picture of secure. You look secure up in the dictionary and there's a picture of me."

"Right," Jackie said, drawing out the syllable and rolling her eyes. "You can't even get through breakfast without you two holding hands under the table." The Doctor and Rose abruptly let go of each other guiltily and put their hands on the table and then wondered why they did. Jackie continued. "If I want my only daughter to accompany me to the doctor in my hour of need before you cart her off to Cardiff or God knows where, I should be able to have her. Besides," she said in an entirely different tone of voice, "I need you to watch Tony for a bit. The nanny doesn't come in on Fridays and Mrs. McDonald can't watch him today."

"Mum, the Doctor shouldn't have to play nanny for you," Rose protested.

"And why not?" Jackie said indignantly, turning to her daughter. "It's not like he does anything else around here."

"Oh, saving the planet from an invading alien species isn't good enough for you?" Rose was more than gearing up for a fight.

"No, Rose, it's fine," the Doctor quickly interjected. Blimey, he hated domestics. For a moment he calculated how soon they could get to Cardiff if they left immediately and wondered if he should just grab Rose's hand and yell run.

Rose and her mother were glaring at each other so the Doctor bent his head down again to finish eating. As soon as Jackie noticed that the Doctor was no longer watching them, her expression changed. First looking at Rose, she glanced at the Doctor and then jerked her head at the door. Rose looked at her in surprise. _What?_ she mouthed with the tiniest shake of her head. Jackie repeated her motions, first nodding her head meaningfully at the Doctor, and then jerking her head at the door.

"Oh, and while we're gone, Rose," Jackie said loudly, "I thought we could go see my friend, Nidra. You remember Nidra Kapoor? Well, she's goin' through the change but she's havin' some problems and her doctor said she needed to have the surgery, the whole works out…"

The Doctor stood up so fast Rose didn't even see him move. The force of the backs of his knees hitting his chair as he stood made it slide backwards across the room to hit the cabinet behind him.

"I, uh, I think that I, uh…" he stammered.

Rose decided to rescue him. "Did I just hear Tony?" she asked innocently.

"Yeah, Tony," he said like a man grasping onto a life preserver. "Yep, I think I just heard Tony get up. I'll, uh, just go check on him, shall I?" He was out of the room like a shot, leaving the door swinging in his wake.

"Thank God, I thought he'd never leave," Jackie said emphatically.

"Yeah, what was all that about?" Rose asked. "Mrs. Kapoor lived on the Estate and she had her surgery my GCSE year."

"Rose, if there's one thing I've learned in all these years, if you want to get rid of a man, all you have to do is mention female troubles and they are gone faster than lightning."

Rose laughed, because she had never seen the Doctor move faster, not even when the werewolf was after them.

"Okay," she said. "What did you really want to talk to me about?"

"Well, there's no easy way to say this, but part of the reason we're goin' to the doctor today is for you."

"Me?" Rose asked. "Why?"

"And the fact that you even have to ask that question is exactly why, missy." Jackie raised her eyebrows at her daughter. "Now that himself is here I know you two are going to go back to shagging like rabbits and don't you think you need to get into the doctor and get back on the pill or get a shot or at least get over to the chemists?" She had said the last part quickly and in one breath, so after she finished she was forced to inhale deeply.

Rose's eyes widened. "Oh, my God. I am _so_ not having this conversation with you."

"Oh, yes, you are," Jackie insisted. "Cos someone needs to. And when the two of you are together I get the impression that you are doin' a heck of a lot of communicating, but not a lot of talkin'. I just want you to use your head before you manage to get yourself up the duff with my part-alien grandchild, a grandchild, I might add, who I am entirely not ready for as well as being far too young for."

Rose rolled her eyes at the idea that her mum was too young to be a grandmother.

"Mum, we're not…"

"Yeah, right. Pull the other one while you're at it. The two of you are always touchin', holdin' hands and hugging. And that's just what you're doin' in front of us. The two of you can hardly seem to be away from each other five minutes, and as soon as you are back together the first thing you do is snog, and I mean snog, not just a peck on the cheek. Dad found the two of you snogging on his desk last night."

"Mum, we were not _on_ his desk!" Rose protested.

"But you were in your dad's office and you were snogging, and from what I understand _his_ tongue was halfway down your throat," Jackie said pointedly. It was a guess, but obviously a fairly accurate one, she decided, when her daughter didn't deny it.

"I can _not_ believe I'm having this conversation with you," Rose said, shaking her head. "Mum, I am a grown woman."

"So start acting like it. Make sure you're prepared. Cos I know it's been a while for you."

"Oh, God." Rose dropped her head into her hands and sighed. "Not that this is _any_ of your business, but we're not… We haven't… And we weren't then, either."

Jackie's eyes narrowed as she stared appraisingly at her daughter. "I almost believe you," she said after a long pause.

"Oh, now you believe me," Rose said incredulously, throwing her hands in the air. "I've been saying the same thing for almost a decade, and now you believe me. Why now, all of a sudden?"

"I didn't say I believe you. I said I _almost_ believe you," Jackie countered. "And it's not because of what you said, but how you said it."

"Oh yeah? How did I say it then that makes you _almost_ believe me?"

"You sound kinda…" Jackie said, an odd expression on her face, "disappointed. Anyway, I scheduled an appointment for you this morning with my doctor. She's very nice. But you don't have to see her if you don't want. You could always go to whoever you were seein' in Cardiff."

The thought of seeing Owen Harper for birth control made Rose feel like her head was about to explode. "No," she squeaked hurriedly. Then she continued in a calmer, and lower, tone. "No, that's just fine. Seeing your doctor will be just fine."

~oOo~

Three hours later, Rose was sitting in an examination room waiting for her mother's doctor.

The waiting room had been extremely posh, not at all what Rose was used to. The last time she had gone to the doctor, other than seeing Owen in the autopsy room for a variety of injuries and the genetic testing the Doctor insisted she have, was while she still lived on the Powell Estate in her home universe. There the waiting rooms were just ordinary rooms with uncomfortable mismatched chairs and years old magazines and were filled with sick adults and screaming children. This room was half empty and was complete with indirect lighting, comfortable furniture and brand new magazines. A large, flat screen TV hung on the wall, playing health information and advice on a continuous loop. Definitely not NHS, she had thought.

The examination room was just as nice, but in a clinical sort of way. Everything was new and sterile and white: white walls, white desk, white examination table. Stainless steel medical instruments sat on the otherwise empty white counter. Rose sat in a white vinyl chair by the desk, having been informed by the nurse that the doctor preferred to come in and talk to her patients first before any type of examination. She didn't have a long wait. There was a gentle knock on the door within seconds and the doctor entered.

And Rose became convinced that the universe, no, the multiverse, had a sense of humor and was also totally insane.

The doctor stood in the doorway. A petite, very pretty black woman, she wore a white lab coat and carried a matching white EPad.

"Hello," she said. "Are you Rose Tyler? I'll be your doctor. My name is Martha Jones."


	4. Chapter Three

As soon as Rose realized her jaw had dropped, she abruptly shut it. Her mother's doctor was the parallel version of one of the Doctor's former companions. Dr. Martha Jones.

She plastered a smile on her face to hide her shock. The truth was, other than Ricky Smith and her parallel parents, her stepfather Pete and his first wife Jackie who was the parallel version of her mother, she had met very few parallel people in the parallel world. She had met Harriet Jones through Pete. She had been tempted at first to look up Shareen and Keisha, her old friends on the Estate, when she had first arrived, but she knew that they wouldn't know her from Adam and would be suspicious of any overtures of friendship from the Vitex heiress, so she had never bothered.

But here was the parallel version of a woman she had just met with the Doctor, the Time Lord Doctor, less than two weeks earlier. That other Martha Jones had helped save the universe, no, all the universes, from destruction. And Rose instantly had liked her.

And she had a feeling she would like this one, too.

"Yeah, I'm Rose Tyler," she answered, standing up to shake Dr. Jones' hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

"I'm sorry, you look so familiar," Martha Jones said. "Do I know you?"

Rose's heart sped up. "Uh, I don't think so…" she stammered. Was it possible that she was getting some sort of mental feedback from the other Martha?

"I don't know. I'm just sure I know you from somewhere. Tyler, Tyler…" the other woman puzzled. "Oh, are you related to Jackie Tyler? Are you Pete Tyler's daughter?"

Rose relaxed, smiling. The universe wasn't collapsing. "Yeah, that's me."

"Your mum was just in," Martha said, smiling back. She gestured Rose to sit down. "Now what can I do for you?"

"Well," Rose began, surprising herself with uncharacteristic shyness, "I'm in kind of a new relationship, well, it's not really a new relationship, more of a situation where he and I just got back together and, well…."

"Oh, I think I understand. How long have you two been having sex and what type of birth control have you been using so far?" As a doctor, Martha Jones had learned to be blunt.

"Oh," Rose said, taken aback. "Oh, we're not. Haven't. Well, at least not yet. But I think we might. Maybe. Dunno."

"Have you talked about this with him?" Martha asked, rather surprised that a woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties seemed so reticent about discussing the topic.

"Well, no," Rose answered. "Y'see, he doesn't talk that much. Well, actually he talks all the time, but about things like this he's really a very private person, and we just haven't… well, talked about it. Much. Hardly at all, really, and not for a really long time."

Martha sighed inwardly. "One of the things I usually tell my patients is that if they can't even say the word sex then they're probably not ready to have it. However, I always think that being ready for every eventuality is wise. Why don't I leave you to change into a gown and we'll do your exam and then talk about your options."

Later, Rose having been examined and prepared for _every eventuality_ in the form of birth control pills, the two women ended up chatting about Rose's life as the Vitex heiress.

"Oh, believe me, it's not all it's cracked up to be," Rose said. "For a while there, the tabloids were following me everywhere, trying to catch me at doing something. Well, anything really. But I never did anything worth putting on a tabloid cover so they eventually left me alone."

"What about now? Now that you've got a new boyfriend?" Martha asked.

Rose laughed at the idea of thinking of the Doctor as something as mundane as a boyfriend and then suddenly gasped.

"What's wrong?" Martha asked.

"Oh, nothing," Rose answered, grimacing. "It's just, well, we've got a big party coming up next week, and I know he's already not looking forward to it. I never thought about the tabloids."

"Ooh, I have always wanted to go to one of those parties," Martha said. "I've never been."

"Why don't you come?" Rose suggested.

"Oh, I don't know," she answered. "I'd have to get a dress…. Could I bring my fiancé? He's going to Africa with Heavenly Healers for a few months, and I want to spend as much time with him as possible before he leaves."

"Of course you can." Rose grinned at the thought of the Doctor meeting the parallel Martha. "Oh, you've _got_ to come," she urged. "I really want you to meet my… friend."

Martha thought for a moment. "Alright, we'll come."

"Fantastic," Rose answered with a big smile.

~oOo~

After leaving the doctor's office, Rose and Jackie went out to lunch and then dress shopping. Rose would have been happy with any one of the first sixteen dresses she tried on, but Jackie found something wrong with each of them.

"That one makes you look…" she would start and then would add: too fat, too thin, too chesty, not chesty enough….

"Honestly, Mum," Rose protested, "what is wrong with this one?" It was an off the shoulder gown in a pale mint.

"Oh, Rose," she replied, wrinkling her nose. "That one washes out your skin color."

Rose sighed. Four department stores, well over fifty dresses, and not one met with her mother's approval. _Having money has finally gone to Mum's head_ , she thought. On the Estate, not only would Jackie have been happy with any of the dresses, but Rose wouldn't have had to go anyway.

On the other hand, when she was back on the Estate, she would have given anything to go to a formal party like this one. And there was a time when she would have cheerfully killed someone to attend one with the Doctor and not be part of the wait-staff.

Finally they went to a tiny boutique in downtown London and found one that met with her mother's approval.

"Now, shoes," Jackie said as they entered yet another department store.

"Mum, I really don't need shoes…" Rose started. Her feet were killing her, and she was more tired than most days when she had been working in Cardiff.

"Not for you, for himself," her mother responded. "There is no way he is going to the party in red trainers." When Rose cheekily mentioned the Doctor also had grey and dark blue ones, Jackie glared at her daughter and stalked off to find men's dress shoes.

As soon as Jackie's back was turned, Rose went to find a pair of black Converse. As she crossed the store, she passed the men's clothing department and remembered her conversation with the Doctor in her stepdad's office. _As long as I'm here_ , she thought, smiling to herself mischievously, _maybe I'll look for a pair of jeans for him. And a leather jacket_.

~oOo~

It was late when they finally made it back to the mansion. To their surprise, both the Doctor and Tony were sound asleep on the sofa in the living room with a Disney movie playing on the television. The Doctor had his trainer-clad feet on the table in front of him, head resting on the back of the sofa and mouth hanging open, and Tony lay on the sofa with his head in the Doctor's lap. The little boy was already in his summer jimjams, a pair of dark blue ones covered with stars.

"Oh, Lord, he doesn't half snore, does he?" Jackie said loudly, referring to the Doctor. She had a look of mild disgust on her face. "Did old him snore like that?"

"Mum, I told you, we weren't…" Rose protested quietly. At an eye roll from her mum she continued. "Plus, Time Lords really don't sleep all that much. I didn't catch him asleep until we had been traveling for almost a year."

Shaking her head, Jackie walked over to the telly and turned it off. She still did not entirely believe her daughter.

Rose crossed the room and tapped the Doctor on the shoulder. He awoke with a start.

"Oh, you're back," he said with a huge yawn, not bothering to stifle it. "Just resting my eyes a bit."

"Uh huh." She grinned at him. "Time to wake up so you can go to bed." She said it quietly so she didn't wake up her little brother.

He grinned back ruefully. "Yeah, I guess I'd better."

"Why don't you take Tony up to bed on your way, then." As was usual for Jackie, her suggestion came out like an order. The Doctor instinctively wanted to argue with her, but the little boy was still on his lap and he didn't want to wake him. Not to mention he wasn't awake enough to come up with a biting retort. Instead, he just lifted the boy when he stood and carried him out of the room and up the stairs, Rose following behind.

"Blimey," he said to Rose after he had put Tony in bed and closed the boy's door, "I can't believe it. He wore me out. Me! I didn't think it was possible. I mean, I once ran the megamarathon on Raniela 12. Longest marathon in that quadrant. One end of their largest landmass to the other. Forty-two days straight. Awake the entire time, and even then I wasn't as tired as I am now. Came in sixth, by the way."

"Yeah, but back then you weren't human." She bit her lip in an effort not to smile.

" _Part_ human, Rose, _part_ human. By definition, since I'm only part human, that means I'm still mostly something else, in this case Time Lord."

"Yeah, with all those superior Time Lord genes."

"Of course," he said arrogantly. When he realized Rose was laughing at him, he decided to change the subject. "By the way, what took you two so long?"

"Oh, you don't want to know," she responded, hoping he didn't press her for too many details. She really didn't know how to talk to him about her doctor's visit, or the reason behind it. She'd figure out how to bring up the subject later, she told herself.

"You know Mum," she continued. "Sixteen dress shops before she was happy with something. You would have been out of your mind with boredom."

The Doctor and Rose held hands as they walked from Tony's bedroom towards their adjoining ones. When they reached Rose's room, they stopped and he turned to her.

"Well," he said. To Rose's surprise, he looked nervous. "Well. I guess this is good night." He gave her an extremely chaste kiss on the forehead and then turned to go.

"Doctor," Rose said. As he turned, she grabbed his face, pulled his head down to hers and kissed him thoroughly. When they broke apart, he looked even more flustered.

"Well," he said again, his voice sounding squeaky. He cleared his throat. "Yes. Well. G'night, Rose." He turned and practically fled into his bedroom.

"Okay, that was _definitely_ weird," Rose said to herself before she entered her own room.

As soon as the Doctor entered his room, he leaned against his bedroom door and exhaled loudly.

_Time for another cold shower_ , he thought.

~oOo~

"Rose, wake up. Wake up."

It was several hours later, and Rose was crying out, tossing and turning. The Doctor sat on the edge of the bed, holding her down.

"No, no, please God, no," she moaned. "Please, no."

"Rose, please, wake up," the Doctor said. He shook her shoulder gently. "Wake up."

Rose opened her eyes. She seemed to stare through him.

"Rose, wake up," the Doctor repeated, this time more sharply.

Rose blinked, and her eyes opened wide as she suddenly, finally recognized him.

"Rose, are you awake?" he asked.

"Oh," she gasped, and threw herself into his arms. He could feel her trembling as he held her.

"You were having a nightmare again," he told her.

"Again?" she asked. Her heart was racing and she was having a difficult time catching her breath.

He nodded. "You had one last night as well. You asked me to stay with you, and I did. Wasn't 'til this morning that I realized you were talking in your sleep." He looked at her intently. "Are you alright?"

She nodded and buried her head in his shoulder as she held him tightly.

"You want to talk about it?" he asked, and she shook her head. "Do you want me to stay with you again?" She nodded.

"Budge up a bit," he said gently with a jerk of his head and a small, lopsided smile. She moved over and he lay down, wrapping his long arms around her when she snuggled up to him. And as she fell back asleep, he stared at the ceiling, lost in thought.

~oOo~

Very early the next morning, Rose awoke to find herself still in the Doctor's arms. With him here, and them finally being back together, she had truly thought her nightmares would end. Over the years, during the day while she was awake, she was able to be strong, to hold everything together. She could be the woman the Doctor had taught her to be, the one she always wanted to be, the one who could build dimension cannons and face Daleks, command UNIT troops and cross to parallel worlds. But at night everything she had seen, everything she had done, everything she had experienced crashed down on her. She had been plagued by nightmares ever since Canary Wharf, that is, when she had been able to sleep at all. Instead of her dreams getting better, though, they had actually gotten worse in recent days. Now that she finally had found him, she suspected that her fears of losing him again were coming out in her dreams. The only thing that seemed to end them was being held by him.

She snuggled closer and, without waking, he instinctively tightened his grip on her. As she lay next to him, she reminded herself that their separation was truly over and he really was here with her. Taking comfort in that fact, and in the warmth of his arms, she fell back asleep.


	5. Chapter 4

Late Saturday morning, Rose drove her tiny, red Mini Cooper into the car park at Torchwood Four with the Doctor sitting in the passenger seat. Rose loved her little Mini Cooper. She strongly suspected the Doctor did not. Like the previous times he had ridden in it, his tall, thin, almost lanky body was folded up uncomfortably in the car. Despite the seat being moved as far back as possible, his knees were pressed against the dashboard and his head almost hit the roof. In fact, since he had taken to wearing his thick, dark brown hair in a style that stood almost straight up, somewhat resembling the quills of a hedgehog, Rose noticed that his hair actually brushed the roof as they drove. _God, he has great hair_ , she thought, _no matter how he wears it_.

Rose parked the car and they got out to walk the short distance to the main entrance. As they crossed the car park, the Doctor grabbed her hand and squeezed it. She squeezed back, grinning at him. He grinned back at her happily and bumped her shoulder with his. The previous night's nightmare forgotten, she bubbled over with laughter, happier than she had been in years.

When they entered the main doors, they stopped, shocked. Dozens of people were queued up, waiting for security to examine their IDs. Beyond them, people were waiting to be scanned with handheld metal detectors. At the end of the lobby, technicians were setting up metal detectors that could be walked through.

"What's going on?" the Doctor asked Rose.

"Dunno," she said, puzzled. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact Lisa escaped a couple of days ago. Don't know why Dad wouldn't have mentioned it, though."

A woman Rose didn't know turned around and faced them. "Where have the two of you been?" she asked disbelievingly. "New law Congress just passed. Those are being installed in all public buildings all over the country. It's been all over the telly."

Rose shrugged apologetically. "We haven't really been watching television for the past few days," she told her.

"Days? They've been talking about it for weeks," the other woman said. "I didn't think there was anyone in the country who didn't know about this. By the way, I'm Anne." She held out her hand. "I work in IT."

"Rose," Rose said, taking her hand and shaking it. "And this is the Doc…"

"John," the Doctor said, interrupting Rose and shaking Anne's hand.

Anne's voice dropped conspiratorially. "And there've been rumors of an alien invasion. All over the country, everyone in the government is on high alert." She scoffed. "Ask me, I think it's all a bunch of hogwash. Whatever it is, I'm guessing it'll all blow over."

The Doctor and Rose exchanged puzzled glances.

After they had gotten through security, they walked hand in hand down the empty corridor, headed towards the dimension cannon lab. Beyond the lobby, the building seemed almost deserted.

"Why didn't Dad tell me about this?" Rose wondered aloud. "I can't imagine he didn't know."

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. Something doesn't seem right about any of this. There's no way that anyone outside of Torchwood would know about the Kern." The Kern were a telepathic life form made of pure energy that had managed to insinuate themselves in the power lines. They had killed a number of people as well as possessed Lisa Hallett. The Doctor had managed to capture them only days earlier.

"And the timing's wrong. We only knew about the Kern for about a week," he continued.

"Maybe it's a different alien invasion," Rose suggested. "But I don't know why Dad wouldn't have mentioned this." Rose reached for her phone before she remembered she no longer had it.

"I really need to get a new mobile," she stated in frustration. "I wanted to text Dad to see what was going on, but I forgot I don't have mine anymore. We need to get you one as well."

He made a face but to Rose's surprise didn't argue with her. "We'll do that as soon as we get out of here," he said instead.

By this time, they had arrived at the lab where Rose had spent the better part of two years. "Here we are," she said.

The dimension cannon lab had higher security than anyplace else in any of the Torchwood facilities. In fact, as it was equipped with both fingerprint and retinal scanners, it had higher security than most places on the planet.

Rose placed her right index finger on the fingerprint scanner next to the door, and the door slid to the side with a woosh. She indicated that the Doctor should enter.

"No, after you," he responded, gesturing grandly.

As they passed through the doorway, the overhead lights in the tiny space they had entered lit up automatically, and, with a hiss,the door automatically closed and locked behind them. Ahead of them was another set of doors which led to the lab itself. Taking only a few short steps, Rose crossed to the other door and stood next to a retinal scanner. First reaching behind her head to grab her long, blonde hair, she held it back out of her face as she bent over the sensor. A weak red light shot out and mapped the pattern of blood vessels in her right eye. After a moment, a screen on the wall above it lit up, reading "Welcome Rose Tyler". The door slid open and they entered the lab.

The dimension cannon lab was a small, crowded room overflowing with high tech equipment. Floor to ceiling computer banks lined one wall. Another wall held computer interfaces and monitors. And in the far corner stood a glass enclosed booth which held the dimension cannon itself.

The dimension cannon was actually made of two parts, one that was fixed in the lab, the other a tiny device smaller than a mobile which the traveler, typically Rose, wore on her person. The main part of the dimension cannon was built into the ceiling of the booth. Next to the door there was a small control panel built into the booth which could be used in an emergency, but the main control over the cannon was handled by whichever technician was manning the computer bank. Usually that was Mickey Smith. Rose had long since known that Mickey was a genius with computers, and he was the only one she truly trusted with the controls.

Rose had always felt that the term dimension cannon was a misnomer, or at least mildly misleading. Although the person traveling with it did travel through dimensions, no one was actually fired through the walls of the universes. Instead, the person, usually if not always Rose, would actually "slip" through the cracks already there, rather than create new holes. Compared to many of the other things she had done in her relatively short life, like go toe to toe with Daleks and Cybermen, she didn't consider it all that dangerous.

The Doctor disagreed, as he would later tell her. He thought the technology was similar to a vortex manipulator crossed with a particle accelerator, with an emphasis on the worst aspects of both, and had all the safety of sitting on an atom bomb as a method to achieve flight. He considered it a miracle that Rose had even survived after using it, let alone survived essentially unharmed after so many trips.

For not only had she survived, but she had survived physically, even genetically, unscathed.

"So, where do we start?" Rose asked him.

He raised his eyebrows incredulously. "You're asking me? This was your project."

Her mouth quirked into a small smile. "Was just tryin' to be polite. I figured you'd want to show off your new sonic."

The Doctor grinned widely and pulled it out of his pocket. "Now, it doesn't have all the features the old one had," he warned. "Still need to find a few additional parts and of course I'll need to spend some time programming it, but it should do for this."

After checking to make certain the dimension cannon equipment was truly disconnected from both Torchwood's computer system and power supply, he walked up to the glass enclosed booth and aimed his new sonic screwdriver at the control panel outside the door. As the sonic began to whir, sparks suddenly shot out of the tip, the glass of the booth shattered, the control panel started on fire, and the sprinkler system turned on, spraying the entire room with water.

"Ahhh," Rose exclaimed in protest as the icy cold water began to dampen her clothes. She raised her arms to cover her head as she ran to turn off the water.

The Doctor just stood there, examining the end of his sonic as he got soaked. "Seems to need some adjustment," he said thoughtfully.

"Ya think?" she said sarcastically. After the sprinkler system was off, she grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and sprayed the control panel, covering it with flame retardant foam. She then squeezed the water out of her dripping hair and wrung out the bottom of her t-shirt.

Not noticing, or possibly ignoring her tone, he nodded. "Yep," he said. "Shouldn't put out sparks like that. Needs a better focusing agent. Earth just doesn't have all the parts I need." He shook his head vigorously, spraying water everywhere. He ended up splashing Rose, who then wiped the water out of her face.

She opened her mouth to complain until she saw a fleeting expression of disappointment cross his face. He tried to hide it but she knew him too well; he was really upset about this setback. Her momentary irritation at him for getting her wet gone due to the problems with the sonic, she looked at him in concern. "What do you need?" she asked.

"Well, I've got an adequate power supply," he said, his brow furrowed. "It's a miniature fuel cell for a hyperwarp drive. Normally they are used to power Class Nine shuttlecrafts from the 63rd century. Contains enough energy to power ten thousand sonics. I found that in the Torchwood archives."

"You found it?" Rose asked. "You mean you nicked it." She bit her lip, trying to hide her amusement. That was so typically him.

He ignored her and continued his own train of thought.

"Unfortunately, for some reason it doesn't want to work properly with the computer chips I cannibalized from the earpods." He ran a hand through his hair in irritation and sighed loudly. "I'll have to work on that. And I need a better way of focusing the sound waves, and of course I need to do a lot more programming. This," he said as he shook his finger at the broken glass and still smoking control panel, "shouldn't have happened."

"Well, as soon as the fire is completely out, we'll have to do this the old fashioned way," Rose replied as she crossed over to a built-in cupboard on the other side of the room.

The Doctor looked at her questioningly.

Pulling out a toolbox, she removed a couple of screwdrivers and handed one to him. "Time to go low tech," she said. He made a face.

~oOo~

Several hours later, the shattered glass was cleaned up and the dimension cannon was largely in pieces all over the floor. The Doctor and Rose sat cross-legged on the floor of the lab, still unscrewing screws, loosening nuts and bolts, destroying computer panels, and essentially dismantling several years of Rose's life. Ever since she had left the University with an advanced degree in theoretical physics and the beginnings of a dissertation on dimensional theory she had begun even before planning on attending Cambridge, every waking hour had been spent on the dimension cannon.

When the stars had started going out, when the sky lost its brightness and became dark, Torchwood had built the dimension cannon using a bit of alien technology in its core. At first it had not worked. The dimension cannon had to use existing cracks in the fabric of space-time, and although the stars had started going out, there just weren't enough cracks for the dimension cannon to break through. It wasn't until the loss of the stars had begun to accelerate that using it to get back to the Doctor was even a possibility. They calculated that the probability of finding the correct universe, and finding him in it, was next to nothing, but it was not zero so Rose had worked on. And on. And on.

But she had had a secret weapon built into the cannon, something that no one other than Pete and Mickey even knew about. And as she sat there, dismantling the small retrieval device she wore, she unscrewed a tiny panel and removed a bit of alien technology that had acted as a homing mechanism to aid her in finding her way. It was unassuming, ordinary looking, yet so advanced that no one else had the clearance to know about it.

It was a key. A key that she had worn around her neck every day for years, a key given to her in another universe by the man she loved, a key to an impossible place. A key to the TARDIS.

Rose held the key in her hand for a moment. It was cold. Truth be told, it had been cold ever since she had been trapped in this universe. But once upon a time, the TARDIS key had been a comforting warmth that she had worn around her neck.

She remembered when the Doctor had first given it to her. They had just begun traveling together and had returned to the Powell Estate so she could see her mother. After accidentally returning home a year late which resulted in her mum slapping him, she had been worried that he would leave her. He had given her this key as a promise that he would return. And he had. That time.

Her hand tightened around the key. For a moment, she thought of the other Doctor, the full Time Lord Doctor in the other universe, and her heart squeezed painfully. She knew the man sitting across from her was the same man, he had told her so and she truly believed him, but the other Doctor, she knew he was never coming back. And that still hurt.

She glanced up and saw the Doctor watching her, a look of concern on his face. She smiled brightly, a cover for the melancholy that threatened to overtake her, and opened her hand, holding the key out to him.

He took it from her and held it for a moment. He didn't remember it ever being this cold in his hand before, not even on the extremely rare occasions over the centuries when he and the TARDIS had been separated and on different planets. Even though he had known his connection with the TARDIS had been broken, had been broken both by the metacrisis and by his presence in this universe, the coldness of the key in his hand still disturbed him on levels he didn't want to think about.

"Is that how you aimed the cannon?" he asked, trying not to think about how much he missed the TARDIS and his old life.

She took a deep breath and nodded. "We used it to zone in on where you were, where the TARDIS was. At first, even the key didn't help. We ended up in so many parallel universes before we would hit the right one, but the timing would be off or the location would be off and then we'd have to try again. I can't tell you how many near misses we had, when I missed you by… only minutes sometimes. I even saw Donna once, before I realized she was traveling with you and before I realized the timelines were all converging on her. I came so close sometimes…."

There was something, something in her face, something in her tone of voice, which worried him. He was reminded of the nightmares she had been having, and he thought about the fact that she had not yet told him all of what she went through to find him. Putting the pieces he had been working on down onto the floor, he reached over and pulled her into his lap. Wrapping his arms around her, he rested his chin on her shoulder.

"And you did it," he said. "You incredibly brilliant person, you. You found me. Against all odds and from a universe away you found me. And you helped save us all."

"You did, too. You stopped the Daleks. You stopped Davros. You saved Donna and the TARDIS. We wouldn't have survived without you either." She leaned back into his chest, resting her head on his shoulder, and smiled a small, tight smile. She crossed her arms and rested them on top of his.

He was gratified by what she said. She meant him specifically, not his other self. He had spent so much time wondering about her feelings for him, most of this life in fact. Granted, this body had been created less than two weeks earlier, so it wasn't a whole lot of time, but as a percentage of the time this version of him had been around, it was an extraordinary portion of his life.

"It would have taken more than the TARDIS key to find me," he said, returning to the previous subject.

"Well, the dimension cannon had a way of determining if we were in the right universe based on the energy signature. Each universe we visited had a slightly different wavelength shift. Sometimes they were only different by nanometers, sometimes even less. Control could tell within minutes of doing a reading whether we were in the right universe. But it didn't usually take me that long."

"How do you mean?" he asked.

Slipping off his lap, Rose faced him directly and met his eyes. She took a deep breath, trying to figure out a way of explaining it to him.

"After a while, when I did a jump," she said slowly, "I could get a sense immediately if the universe I was in was the wrong one. I don't know how. It was just a feeling in my skin, no, kinda in my whole body, that told me whether or not I had made it. I don't know how it worked, or how I knew, but I was always right. I always knew when we were off."

"That's incredible," he said with a shake to his head. "I've never heard of anything like that." Even he hadn't noticed when they had first crossed into the parallel world with Mickey, he remembered.

"It was real," she insisted. "I'm not making it up."

"I believe you, Rose," the Doctor responded. "I don't understand it, but I believe you." He paused before he continued. "Did other people doubt you?"

She nodded. "Even Mickey and Dad didn't believe me at first. It wasn't until I was proved right time and again that they _had_ to believe me."

There was something else that had been bothering him, and now seemed like a good time to ask. "How long were you looking for me?"

"We did an average of ten to fifteen jumps a week. At the beginning, less, toward the end, a lot more. Linear time, maybe a year. Personal time, it was a bit longer."

"How much longer?" he asked.

"For me, perhaps as much as double that, with all the jumps I did. I'm not really sure. It was easy to lose track of time. It was kinda like traveling in the TARDIS in that respect," she said. "They'd think I was gone a matter of minutes or hours, when often in reality it was more than that. Sometimes a day or two. A few times it was a week. And then when I was with UNIT and Donna, it was at least a month." She smiled, almost sadly. "Makes up for that year I missed when we were first traveling."

The Doctor was reminded of earlier in the week when she had been examined by Torchwood Three's doctor, Owen Harper. Owen had been concerned about her weight loss and exhaustion. The situation was worse than he had realized. Given the fact that she had spent almost a year working on the dimension cannon before they even started doing jumps, she had been pushing herself for close to three years. Longer when her years of going to the Uni while working full time at Torchwood Three were factored in.

"So when you told me it had been almost seven years that you've been here…."

"I didn't say it had been almost seven years for me personally," she corrected. "I said Tony was almost six, and between Mum's pregnancy and the fact she didn't fall pregnant immediately, we've been here about seven years. But with all of my traveling with the dimension cannon, it was more for me. I'm just not sure how much more."

Possibly as much as double what it had been for him. "I had no idea," he said. "You are absolutely incredible. I don't know how you did it, how you kept it up year after year."

"I had to. We had to," she told him. "We really didn't have any choice. Someone had to warn you about the stars going out. We tried so many different things, tried sending messages to you wherever you were before the cannon even started working."

"But that was everyone," he said. "Did everyone do the jumps, spend years at this?"

She shook her head. "No. I was on the original team. Some people had to leave, others, like Mickey, were brought in later. And except for a few preliminary jumps to test it, I did the jumps. Everyone on my team, Mickey in particular, knew how important it was to find you, and we knew I was the one who had the best chance. Plus," her mouth twisted into a small smile, "I _may_ have been a tiny bit more motivated."

"And why is that?" he asked, hoping he already knew the answer but needing to hear the words.

"I promised you forever and I meant it, Doctor," she said simply and he grinned at her.

Later, they finished up on the cannon, only stopping when they were left with unrecognizable pieces that could be individually melted down. They even dismantled the computers that controlled the cannon, just to make certain it couldn't be built again.

"The plans don't exist anymore," Rose told him as she pulled out the motherboard of one. "I destroyed them once we were finished building it. Other people only worked on individual parts. The whole plans for it, how the parts worked together to make the cannon, only exist in my head now. No one will ever be able to rebuild it."

"Are you sorry about that, Rose?" he asked quietly. "Never going back?"

_Never seeing him again_ was left unspoken between them.

She turned to face him, and his heart was warmed when he heard her answer.

"I don't need to go back," she said seriously, looking deeply into his eyes. "You're here with me."


	6. Chapter Five

That evening after dinner, the Doctor and Rose went to Pete’s study. When they got to the open door, they saw that Rose’s stepdad was seated at his desk, facing away from them and talking on the telephone. 

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Of course. No, I didn’t realize that. Yes, I agree. Just let me know the time and place and I will be there.” He swiveled his chair back to face the desk. “Thank you, President Jones.” He rang off and stared into space.

Rose lightly knocked on the door frame. “Dad,” she called softly.

Pete Tyler looked up in surprise and gestured for the two of them to enter the room. They joined him at his desk, sitting on chairs opposite him.

“What can I do for the two of you?” he asked, smiling, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“What was all that about?” Rose asked, gesturing at the phone.

“Oh, just minor organizational problems,” Pete answered dismissively with a small wave of his hand. “Nothing to worry about. What did you need?”

“We went to dismantle the dimension cannon today,” she told him. “And on the way back, the Doctor and I got new mobiles. Mine has the same number, but if you give me yours, I’ll program his into it.”

Pete pulled out his mobile and handed it to Rose.

“When we got to Torchwood, there was this really long queue to get in,” Rose continued, handing the phone back to her stepdad when she was done. “What’s with the extra security guards and barwanding people? And do we really need metal detectors? I mean, we already have armed guards at the gate, security doors, ID cards that track your whereabouts… Do we really need even more security?”

“You were kidnapped from inside the building,” Pete reminded her.

“None of this would have prevented that,” she countered. “Lisa still would have been able to kidnap me with or without the metal detectors.”

“Yeah, I know,” Pete said. “And I tend to agree with you; despite everything that happened with Lisa Hallett, I still believe our security is more than adequate. But this is really not my call. This was pushed through by Congress over the objections of the President. All public buildings are now required to have a certain amount of security, over and above CCTV.”

“When you say all public buildings…” the Doctor started.

“I mean all public buildings,” Pete answered. “Everything from government buildings to banks to the cinema to the local Tesco’s. Everything is to have a minimum amount of security. Now most of those buildings already have it, but there are hints in the background that this is just the beginning.”

“Pete, there was something else I wanted to ask you about,” the Doctor said. “While we were in the queue to get in, someone mentioned rumors of an alien invasion. What was that all about?” 

The other man shook his head. “I’ve heard those rumors, too, and I have no idea where they are coming from. They’re not coming from Torchwood, at any rate. And if there were anything to it, I’d know about it.” He sighed. “At least I hope I would.”

~oOo~

Sunday morning had the Doctor and Rose going in different directions. 

At the Torchwood Institute, Pete Tyler and the Doctor wandered through an enormous storage bay located in the west end of the main building. The powers that be in Torchwood, Pete included, had decided that the Canary Wharf location was too high profile and had purchased a large, disused factory to the west of London proper. To the world, it was a baby formula factory, but in reality it was a high tech facility: part intelligence agency, part scientific lab, part diplomatic organization.

“There’s a number of things I’d like you to help me with, but the primary thing I need you to do, the one that absolutely needs to be done here,” Pete had said when he had asked the Doctor to accompany him to Torchwood, “is I need you to help identify some of our backlog of alien tech.” When the Doctor had begun to protest, he had continued. “I’m not asking you to reverse engineer it, or even tell us how it works necessarily, although that would be very, very helpful, but if you could just tell us what things are and how dangerous they are, our scientists can take it from there.”

After arguing with him for a bit, the Doctor had finally agreed to identify everything, reasoning to himself that the scientists at Torchwood would be less likely to accidentally blow themselves up if they knew what they were dealing with.

The storage bay, large enough to hold several zeppelins, primarily held scavenged alien technology that was too large to place anywhere else or that had yet to be identified to determine which lab it should be assigned to. At least, when they arrived the items had yet to be identified. By the time they left, the Doctor had told Pete what everything was, what it was for, and whether or not it was dangerous. Most of the time the smaller items, which included anything smaller than a shuttlecraft, were useless pieces of junk that were either missing important components or broken off from larger pieces of equipment. Occasionally, they were human in origin that were just out of their proper time period and had come up through the Cardiff Rift. But then there was that one percent, that small number of items that actually worked.

And most of those were dangerous. Really, really dangerous.

The Doctor’s first instinct was to remove them, damage them, or destroy them in some way to prevent people from either hurting themselves accidentally, or hurting others on purpose. The problem was, of course, how. He was just one man, one man without many resources these days, and the only way to get rid of it all would be to blow up the building. 

Which he definitely considered. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time he blew anything up. Not the first time in this body and not even the first time on this planet. Wouldn’t even be the first time this week.

As tempting as that was, he didn’t know what was in the archives, and blowing it up with the rest of the items could potentially be more dangerous than just leaving things alone. Depending on what was down there, an explosion could take out half the planet instead of just the building. The Doctor warned Pete thoroughly of the dangers and suggested that somehow the items from the storage bay get ‘lost’. Well, at least until he had time to dismantle them.

“We can’t just take apart everything that is in working condition, Doctor,” Pete argued. “It is Torchwood’s job to protect this planet and sometimes that involves a show of force. And we can’t have a show of force if all we have is a bunch of broken down equipment that doesn’t even look like it could work.”

The Doctor looked around at the huge amount of alien tech in the bay and then rubbed his forehead. As a full Time Lord, human stubbornness often gave him a headache, and it evidently still did despite him being part human now. 

“Pete, there’s stuff here that could blow up the planet if it’s not handled properly. Unless you have a death wish for humanity, you’ve got to get rid of it.”

“With all due respect, Doctor, you haven’t been here all that long. We’ve had problems with aliens for years. Misunderstandings have led to confrontations which we barely made it through and usually only because we were able to scare them into backing off.”

The Doctor sighed loudly and switched from rubbing his forehead to rubbing his left eye. “Some of the most lethal stuff in here doesn’t look hazardous at all, and that’s the problem. It’s like having a nuclear warhead that’s in the shape of a teddy bear. You could blow someone up with it, but you can’t use it to threaten anyone because no one would believe that it was dangerous. Well, not until it exploded at least. Anyway, you need to store some of this stuff. Safely. Possibly in the archives. After all, you could lose an entire spaceship down there.

“And if your problem is misunderstandings,” he continued, “what you really need is an upgraded translator.”

Pete looked at him appraisingly. “Is that something you could do?”

The Doctor waved a hand dismissively. “Upgrade a translator?” He tapped his temple with one finger. “Five billion languages, Pete. Still all up here. I could do it in my sleep.”

“So will you?”

“Will I what?” the Doctor said blankly. Pete raised his eyebrows at him and the penny dropped. “Oh! You want me to upgrade your translator for you. Certainly. Not a problem.”

“And as far as the archives are concerned,” Pete said, “I could use your help down there as well.”

“Pete,” the Doctor protested, “I could be down there a month and barely scratch the surface.”

“But a number of pieces down there might need further study. And perhaps you would be able to work on those as well as the translator. So we might want to transfer some of that equipment to Torchwood Three,” Pete said. “Perhaps you could let me know which ones would be worth shipping to Cardiff.” 

The Doctor slowly grinned. Undoubtedly there would be items down there that he’d be able to use in growing the TARDIS. And he was touched that Pete had made the offer, especially considering he would have worked on the translator anyway and Pete knew it.

“Certainly, Pete,” he said. “I’m guessing there’s a fair amount of things down there that should be shipped to Cardiff.”

Pete returned his grin. “Good. Starting tomorrow, we’ll hit the archives.”

~oOo~

While Pete and the Doctor were at Torchwood, Rose and Jackie went to pack up Mickey’s flat.

“I’ve still got the key he gave me for emergencies,” Jackie had told her daughter before they had left the mansion. “Doing his flat is the least I can do for him.”

Mickey’s flat was on the outskirts of London, not far from the Torchwood compound. He had spent a year running the Torchwood Three branch in Cardiff before returning to London, so he really hadn’t had this particular flat for all that long. He had been in this universe even longer than Rose, though, and she knew he wasn’t a particularly good housekeeper, so she expected that they would find the accumulation of nearly a decade’s worth of stuff in addition to Mickey’s usual mess.

She was wrong. 

The minute she and her mum had opened the door of the flat, they were both surprised at how empty it was. His bed had been stripped of its bedding. The bathroom had been cleaned and emptied of all personal items. And the kitchen only held the minimum of dishes and cookware. Even the refrigerator was empty.

The tiny sitting room had also been cleared out. There was a threadbare couch and an old chair near an ancient television. A low, scuffed table sat in front of the couch, and in the center of the room were half a dozen cardboard boxes, presumably filled with his personal items. And on top of them lay two envelopes, one addressed to Jackie, the other to Rose.

Jackie and Rose looked at each other in shock.

“He knew,” Rose said softly. “He had planned this. It wasn’t a spur of the moment decision to stay there. He had no intention of coming back.”

Later, in the living room of the mansion, Rose and her mum sat on the floor, staring at the cardboard packing boxes that they had brought back from the flat. At first, each of them had wondered privately if they had the right to go through them and then independently realized that Mickey wouldn’t have left the boxes for them to discover if he hadn’t intended them to have the contents. Still, they were almost afraid to open them, as if opening them would make the whole situation more real. Mickey was alive and safe in the other universe, but they’d never see him again so it was almost as if he had died.

Rose pulled the envelopes he had left for them out of her pocket and handed her mum’s to her. Jackie opened hers and began to read aloud.

_Dear Jackie,_

_I’m leaving you this note just in case I don’t…_

Jackie’s voice broke and her eyes welled up. “Here, you read it,” she said, thrusting it at Rose. “I just can’t.” 

Rose took the letter from her mother’s hands and began to read aloud.

_Dear Jackie,_

_I’m leaving you this note just in case I don’t have a chance to talk to you later. You know we’ve had our problems in the past, but over the years I have come to think of you as family. Thank you for taking me and my gran in when you got here. You made her last years very happy._

_Jackie, I want you to know you’ve been like a second mum to me. I love you and am always gonna miss you._

_Mickey_

The tears that had threatened before started to fall in earnest now, and Jackie reached for some tissues. She wiped her face and blew her nose loudly, but for once she didn’t say anything.

Rose turned to her own note, scanning it silently.

_Babe,_

_I don’t know if you’ll ever see this, or if you too will be home in the other universe, but in case you end up back here, I wanted to leave you a note as well._

_We’ve been best friends for a lot of years, most of our lives, and the time we were together was… nice. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that all we were was nice. And you deserve better than nice. And frankly, so do I._

_I’m always gonna love you in a way, and I’m always gonna miss you, but for your sake and his I really hope you find him again. Cos what the two of you had together was a whole lot better than nice. I’ve known for a long time how much you love him, and since day one it was written all over him what he felt for you. If you do find him again, don’t ever let him go. You two deserve some happiness._

_Mickey_

Tears threatened as she tried to swallow the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat. 

After a few moments of sitting quietly and trying to compose themselves, they turned to the boxes in front of them. The first two boxes were filled with clothing with a note to donate them to charity, and the third was similar, instead containing towels and bedding rather than clothes.

Three of the boxes were labeled with names, something Jackie and Rose hadn’t noticed earlier. One box was labeled ‘Tony’, and Rose took a quick peek in it. Inside were a variety of football items Mickey had evidently accumulated over the years: posters, a football signed by a famous player, a jersey from his favorite team. All items a small boy would treasure.

Jackie’s box was filled with knickknacks and had a short note on top. _These used to belong to my gran. I know she would have wanted you to have them. She loved you like a daughter._ Jackie’s eyes began to tear up again.

Rose opened her box carefully. It was smaller than the others, yet it was still the heaviest. Inside it was filled with photo albums and an external hard drive labeled _Photos and Journal_. She raised her eyebrows. She had had no idea that Mickey had kept a written record of his experiences in Pete’s World, and she was touched that he had wanted her to have it. Quickly flipping through the photos, she noticed that the shots dated from before she had been trapped on Pete’s world to some that were taken approximately a week before they had found the Doctor. There were pictures of Mickey and Jake from all over the world: Mickey mugging for the camera in front of the Eiffel Tower, both of them standing in front of a giant statue of the Buddha in Hong Kong, Jake in front of the Sydney Opera House, and then the two of them in San Francisco, the Emerald Bridge (the parallel version of the Golden Gate Bridge) in the distance. 

Others had been taken closer to home. There was a candid shot of her holding her brother in the hospital when he was born. A picture of her first Christmas here, essentially a family portrait, his gran sitting next to her and Tony in her mother’s arms with Pete and Mickey behind them. A shot taken at Tony’s first birthday. With a smile, Rose recognized a number of the pictures as coming from the Hub in Cardiff. Tosh at her workstation, Ianto making coffee, and a truly disgusting one of Owen performing an autopsy on a purple and green tentacled alien from Degrev 5. That one made her laugh in spite of herself. Sometimes she wondered about Mickey.

Picking up the hard drive, she debated whether she should read his journal entries. He had obviously meant for her to have them, but she still didn’t know if she ought to. Deciding to make a decision later about it, she packed everything back in the box and closed it up. Glancing up at her mum, she realized Jackie had Mickey’s letter to her in her hands, and tears were still silently falling. She leaned forward and hugged her mother before getting up.

“I’ll go make us some tea.”

~oOo~

Late that evening, Pete and the Doctor returned to the mansion from Torchwood only to find Jackie and Rose had held off their tea so the men could join them. The cook had made a cassoulet, with crusty French bread and butter on the side, and the four of them sat down to eat.

The meal was subdued. Tony had long since been put to bed, and Jackie was uncharacteristically quiet.

On the way up to their rooms, the Doctor asked about Jackie. “What’s wrong?” 

“We cleaned out Mickey’s flat today,” she told him. “It was just tougher on Mum than she expected it would be.”

“How are you doing?” he asked seriously.

“I’m alright,” she answered quietly. “I’m always alright,” she continued, plastering a fake smile on her face to lighten the heavy mood.

“No, you’re not,” the Doctor responded, cupping her face in his hands. “Something’s wrong, and I don’t think it has anything to do with Mickey. You’ve been having nightmares for the last couple of nights.”

Rose looked away, unsure if she should answer. Finally she shook her head. “No, I haven’t.”

“Yes, you have. I’ve been there.”

“That’s not what I meant. I mean, it’s not just the past couple of nights.”

He looked at her in concern. “How long has this been going on?” he asked. 

“A while.” 

“How long?” he asked again, this time separating the words and asking slightly more firmly.

She wasn’t sure how she should, or even if she should, answer. She took a deep breath. “Since Canary Wharf,” she admitted finally.

His heart broke and he pulled her into his arms. She automatically wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder.

Tightening his grip on her, he brushed her hair away from her face and kissed the top of her head. “Is there anything I can do?” he asked softly.

“You’re already doing it,” she said. “Just by being with me.”


	7. Chapter 6

This time they met in a deserted car park near a different underground station at 3 am. Due to the lateness of the hour, he hadn’t been able to take the tube. He parked a distance away, in the parking garage of a nearby hotel. As he walked, he looked around himself nervously. He wanted to avoid being caught on CCTV, but he wasn’t exactly sure where the cameras were. He was also concerned about muggers and drug dealers, but he saw no one. Probably they were all at home, asleep in bed. Where he should have been, he told himself, but there hadn’t been any other option.

The bag he carried was heavy, and as the weight got to be too much for one hand he’d shift it to the other. Eventually he placed the strap of the bag over his head to rest on his shoulder so the weight of the contents would be distributed somewhat. 

This time he had rung up the other, something he hardly, if ever, did. They each had dedicated mobiles to be used only in contacting one another, and the other’s phone had voice altering software built in for extra security. He had been nervous about the other’s reaction to him ringing, but he knew the contents of the bag were too vital to put off delivering any longer than necessary.

For a moment in the car park he was disoriented. The car he was expecting to see wasn’t there. In fact, there wasn’t a single sedan there, which was an oddity in and of itself. After searching for several minutes, he finally found the car he was looking for. It was a small hatchback, a foreign model dirty enough to not only disguise the car’s number plates but its color as well. The only reason he knew it was the right car was because there was someone in it.

As usual, the car had been parked in the shadows, a distance away from all the lights of the car park. This time it was parked next to a large van as well, which further blocked the car from view. Pulling the bag off his shoulder, he approached the hatchback from the left and slipped in through the passenger side door. He placed the bag on his lap.

“Is that…” the other asked immediately.

“Lisa Hallett’s computer,” he finished, nodding. “Computers, actually. She had two.”

“Did she? Interesting,” the other said, a note of excitement creeping into his voice.

“And her files were still intact,” he said, handing over the bag. “All of them.”

The other looked up sharply. “Really. That is good news. Were you able to access them?”

“Yes. I am not entirely without skills in that department.” He tried to keep irritation out of his tone. “I saw the Torchwood Three file. It was very… thorough. Her suspicions about Smith were correct. He’s not human, well, not entirely. According to the report, his body seems to have human elements in it, but much of his DNA is unidentifiable, at least according to Owen Harper.”

“Owen Harper is….”

“Torchwood Three’s doctor and the person who wrote the report. According to Hallett’s notes, he had done a good job of trying to destroy the file, but she is by all reports a genius who is particularly gifted with computers and she was able to recover it.”

“All of it?”

“We think so.”

The other paused thoughtfully. “So Smith isn’t entirely human. Now that is interesting.”

“And there’s more,” he said. “Although there are no records of Torchwood being involved in the explosion at the beacon, the next morning Pete Tyler’s Aston Martin was taken to a body shop. There were reports of extensive surface damage to it: the top was ripped, the boot was caved in and the entire surface was pitted as though it had been pelleted by rocks or other debris. Almost as if it had been near an explosion.”

“Pete Tyler caused the explosion?” the other said in disbelief.

He shook his head. “Not possible. He was at Torchwood when the beacon blew up. However, his daughter and Smith were not. The beacon exploding was clearly an act of sabotage and undoubtedly caused by Rose Tyler and John Smith.”

“Which means they not only knew about the beacon, but also what it contained.”

He nodded. “What’s more, normally an explosion of this kind is exactly what Torchwood would investigate, but Pete Tyler has completely shut down any type of inquiry into it.”

“Almost as if he had something to hide.”

“Yes. And one last thing….” He passed over an envelope. The other opened it and pulled out a photograph. “I don’t know what this is, but it seems to be important for some reason. All I really know about it I’ve heard from the rumor mill, which says that Smith gave it to Tyler for safekeeping. Do you know what it is?”

“Hmm. I’m not certain. But if it is important to Smith, I think we need it. And we need to find out what they know. Take care of it.”

~oOo~

For Rose, the next week seemed to almost fly by. Thursday morning saw her finishing the last of the packing she needed to do. She had not intended to stay in this universe so she had been slowly divesting herself of her belongings over the course of the previous year, but she still seemed to have plenty of her own stuff to pack. Over the years, she had managed to accumulate books, clothes and mementos of her years spent in Pete’s World. And although some things had never been taken out of their packing boxes when she had moved back to London from Cardiff, other things had been left behind the first time she had moved to Wales. Packing it all still took a great deal of time.

She was also packing the Doctor’s belongings since he was spending so much time at Torchwood with her stepdad. He had a lot less stuff than she had, having only brought the clothes on his back and the contents of his pockets into Pete’s world, but there were all the clothes that they had purchased for him, and packing those took some time as well. She was determined that they would leave for Cardiff the morning after the Vitex party, and she didn’t want to put anything off until the last minute.

She had also been busy because Jackie had decided to enlist Rose in handling the last minute details of the party. Of course Jackie hadn’t planned nor made the arrangements for the party herself, a party planner hired by Vitex had done that, but all of a sudden Jackie had decided Rose needed to confirm that everything, from the catering to the music to the flowers, was taken care of.

Although Jackie insisted that it was necessary, Rose strongly suspected it was make-work, something Jackie was having Rose do to keep her in London as long as possible. Her mother knew she and the Doctor wanted to head out to Cardiff as soon as possible, preferably even before the party, and Rose was convinced that her mum was trying to do everything within her power to prevent it.

And to the Doctor it almost seemed as if Pete was trying to keep them in London as well. He kept on coming up with projects that the Doctor could do for the London branch of Torchwood before he and Rose left.

All week, when he wasn’t busy at Torchwood, he spent his time in Pete’s workshop working on his sonic screwdriver, and Thursday was no different. Building a new sonic wasn’t going as well as he had hoped it would. Since the War, he had always had to scavenge for parts for the TARDIS in the unlikeliest places, and he knew he could do it for his sonic as well, but it was slow going. He really needed a new way to focus the sound waves. He had exactly the right item to use, it had been in his pockets when he had arrived, but he had planned to use it for something else and was disappointed he’d have to use it for this.

Returning to his room, he immediately crossed to the wardrobe. The blue pinstriped suit he had put on in the TARDIS the day that his body had been created had been to the cleaners, so he had taken out the contents of his pockets and had put them back on the shelf above his clothes. Shoved back in one corner were three small velvet bags. He reached back to grab one and instead pulled out a USB drive. It was the one Owen Harper had given him, the one that contained both his and Rose’s medical records from their testing in Cardiff almost two weeks earlier. He really needed to go through them again, he thought. Analyzing his own physiology wasn’t that urgent, but he needed to figure out what was going on with Rose. And soon. Her increased neural activity combined with her unnatural ability to heal seemed like a blessing, but it was worrisome since he didn’t know what was causing it. But the analysis could wait until after he built his new screwdriver, he told himself. After pocketing the little flash drive, he grabbed one of the velvet bags, checked to see if it was the one he needed, and returned to the workshop. 

Early that afternoon, needing a break from doing all the things her mother wanted her to do, and frankly needing a break from her mother, Rose went in search of the Doctor. She had hardly seen him all week. She had seen so little of him in fact that if she didn’t know better, she’d almost have said he was avoiding her. He hadn’t gone to Torchwood with her stepdad that morning, so she knew he was around the mansion somewhere, but she wasn’t sure where. On a hunch, she decided to check in the workshop.

He was sitting on one of the stools at the workbench working on his sonic, glasses on, brow furrowed, tongue sticking slightly out in a look of intense concentration. He was looking through a large magnifying glass on a stand and using long, narrow tweezers to place miniaturized electronics into the sonic’s handle. A smile appeared on his face as he heard her entering the room.

“Hello,” he said without looking up. 

“Hello,” she automatically responded, grinning. The grin was her typical response to seeing him, particularly when he was wearing those glasses. “Making any progress?”

“Some,” he replied. Rose saw him pick up something else, something blue, off the workbench with the tweezers and attempt to put it in his screwdriver. He seemed to be having a difficult time placing it exactly where he wanted it. 

“What are you doing?”

“This stone has the rare ability to focus not only light but sound waves. I’m hoping that it will solve some of my problems with the sonic.”

Rose sat down on a stool opposite him and watched as the Doctor continued to struggle with the blue crystal. Glancing at the workbench, she saw one of the velvet drawstring bags that had been in one of his pockets when they had arrived on Pete’s World. Crystals in a variety of colors and sizes had spilled out of it and were cluttering the space between them. And then her eyes widened in shock.

“Bloody hell,” she said under her breath as she picked up a large stone that she now recognized as a diamond. Glancing back at the workbench, she realized the rest of what she had thought were mere crystals were actually fine gemstones.

Without moving his head, the Doctor looked over his glasses at her. 

“I told you that I didn’t come empty handed,” he told her. He looked back down to return to work on his sonic.

“You weren’t kidding,” she said as she examined the jewel. “I thought…. Well, I don’t know what I thought. But the idea you had these… Why did you have these? And how? And why did I have to pay for chips so often?”

“In reverse order, one, these aren’t widely accepted as currency on any planet except Jujandran, and there they are considered the equivalent of about twenty quid. And the chips there are horrible. Two, these litter the ground on some of the places I’ve been, not many but some, and it’s just a matter of picking them up if I remember to. And four, no, three? Anyway, I had them in case the TARDIS broke down and I got stranded somewhere. Wouldn’t have worked on Krop Tor because I didn’t have access to the TARDIS, but occasionally it happens and I’ve had to cash in one or two until I could get it fixed. Happened a lot during the War, actually, although I started stocking these up in the TARDIS much earlier than that. Sometime during my third life, after I realized I had nothing to live on when I was stranded on Earth. Carried gold, too, but that was to fight Cybermen back then… When they were first created in our universe, their respiratory systems were sensitive to gold dust; it essentially suffocated them.”

Rose couldn’t follow all his ramble, but she did manage to get the general point that he kept them in the TARDIS in case he got stranded somewhere.

_Like he was stranded here_ , she thought.

And since he had had them in his pocket when he had gotten here, that meant that he had to have put them there before they got here.

“So you did know,” she said quietly.

“Know what?” he asked. He was still trying to fit the jewel into his sonic so he didn’t look up.

“You knew he was leaving you here. You knew enough in advance to pack those.”

He stilled as he wondered where she was going with this. He was silent for a moment. “Yes,” he said finally.

His answer didn’t come as a surprise. She had guessed that he knew he was being left behind. He hadn’t seemed surprised at being dropped off on the beach in Norway. But she didn’t know the answer to her next question, and all of a sudden it seemed vital to find out.

“Did you choose to stay, or did he decide for you, too?” she asked.

He didn’t respond. Instead, he continued to work on his sonic and didn’t look at her. To Rose his silence spoke volumes.

“So you didn’t really want to be here, did you?” 

The Doctor looked sharply up at her, accidentally dropping the gemstone from his tweezers. It bounced several times before rolling across the workbench. Rose caught it just before it fell on the floor.

“Rose, look at me,” he said. When she looked up, he continued. “I may not have had the choice to be on this planet, in this universe, but being with you, wherever you were, I wanted that. I’ve always wanted that, ever since I met you.”

They stared at each other for a moment. She had wanted this, wanted to be with him for so long, that sometimes it still didn’t seem real that he was here. And now that he was here, things had changed between them so quickly that it was a bit overwhelming.

Rose looked away first. Glancing down, she noticed she was still holding the blue gem in her hand. She stretched out her hand to give it back to him. After taking it from her and setting it down in front of him, he grabbed her hand before she could pull it away.

“Sometimes all you need is a hand to hold, Rose Tyler,” he reminded her. “And the hand I want to hold is yours.”


	8. Chapter 7

Rose spent the rest of the afternoon watching him work, handing him things he needed and listening to him talk. He told Rose that he had brought three small velvet bags from the TARDIS, two filled with gemstones, the third with gold and silver coins, intending to sell the contents to provide the necessary startup capital to begin to build a new life. He had left his counterpart with enough gems of his own as an emergency fund. And not all the stones could be sold, he informed her. Some weren't naturally occurring on the Earth and would be difficult to sell, as well as possibly dangerous in that by selling them it could attract unwanted attention to him. Still, there were more than enough there to guarantee he could afford to buy whatever property he wanted in Cardiff, as well as set himself up with a shop and whatever equipment he needed for growing and outfitting the new TARDIS.

While he talked and worked on his sonic, she had begun to absentmindedly sort the stones on the workbench, first by color and then by size, as if they were just playing pieces of a child's game.

"Not like that. You're arranging them by outward appearance," the Doctor said. "If you're gonna sort them, at least do it properly."

"Properly?" she asked in amusement. "How would you do it then?"

"By type of gem and planet of origin," he told her. He didn't say _of course_ , but Rose could hear it in his voice anyway.

"But I don't know what they are or where they come from," she answered pointedly.

"Well, the green one in your hand may look like an emerald, but it's really a diamond. It was given to me by His Royal Greatness Rowhan the Third on Telaxia 6 when I managed to solve a little problem for him regarding a warp field generator and his daughter's pet guinea pig…."

As he continued to work on his sonic, he told her stories about each stone, what it was and where he had acquired it.

"Now that one I actually got in Barcelona. The planet," he clarified. He pointed to a light pink stone with his long-handled tweezers. "I always wanted to take you there," he said thoughtfully. "We never did make it there, did we? Well, maybe we can go to the one in this universe eventually, see if they have dogs with no noses here." He grinned at her.

She grinned back. "So how did you get that one?" she asked. "Meritorious service to the Emperor or something?"

"Ah. Well. Not exactly."

He returned to working on his sonic. When he didn't continue talking, a rarity for him, she stared at him suspiciously.

"You nicked it, didn't you?"

"Nicked is a pejorative term," he informed her. "I prefer… acquired. Besides, can you really nick something from someone who has nicked it from someone else?"

"Yes," she stated flatly. "Since obviously you didn't give it back to whoever originally owned it."

"There was some question at the time who the rightful owner was," he said. "Besides, nothing to be done about it now. Not like I can give it back, given that it was a whole different universe and everything."

Rose laughed, and he continued to tell her stories about the stones while he worked. Eventually she suspected she was distracting him too much for him to effectively work on his new screwdriver, so after kissing him on the cheek, she went back upstairs to finish up her mother's 'to do' list.

~oOo~

After a late dinner they held hands, fingers entwined, and walked up the stairs to their rooms. When they got to her door, the Doctor stopped and turned to her.

"I'm gonna go back down and work on my sonic a bit more," he told her. "I'm finally making progress, and if I really hit it hard, I might even finish it tonight." He leaned towards her and gave her an extremely short, extremely chaste, kiss on the top of her head. "G'night, Rose," he said and immediately walked back down the stairs.

Running a hand through her hair, Rose stared after him. Now she really did wonder if he was trying to avoid being alone with her for some reason. He had seemed fine in her stepdad's workshop earlier, but now it looked like he wasn't just walking down the stairs, he was fleeing down them.

Entering her room, Rose shut the door behind her. She was confused. Very confused. And frustrated. Really frustrated. The Doctor had once accused her of sending mixed signals, but he was the king of mixed signals as far as she was concerned. Back when they had been traveling together she had always wondered how he truly felt about her, but on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay he had made his feelings clear. Or at least she had thought he did. And since they had been back in London, he had again tried to make his feelings known. He had actually told her he loved her. More than once, in fact. And, according to him, he had loved her since the earliest days of their traveling together.

And they had shared some extremely hot kisses.

And then… nothing.

And now he hadn't even properly snogged her in days.

There had been the one night, right after she had been kidnapped, when he had come into her room in the middle of the night to check on her. That night she had been sure, well almost sure, that they almost…. But then they didn't.

And they still hadn't. Ever since he had discovered the fact she was having nightmares, he had begun holding her at night. Actually even before that, from the time she had fallen asleep on him in Cardiff. But despite sharing a bed a portion of just about every night, all they ever did was sleep.

And so she was frustrated. And confused. And a little bit worried. How could someone so attractive, so incredibly sexy, not want to…. Especially when he had told her he loved her. And his kisses had been so hot. Toe curling hot.

She swore the sexual frustration was gonna kill her. Literally kill her. Did people die of that? If not, she might be the first. God, it was as bad as when they had been traveling. Only worse, because the kissing was definitely giving her ideas that were quickly becoming obsessive fantasies in her mind.

For more than a week she had forced herself not to remember the events on the beach. But thinking back on it, even before the TARDIS had left he had offered to spend his life with her. And then later, just a week ago, he had said forever when she had asked how long he was going to stay with her.

But nowhere had the idea been discussed about them shagging each other six ways from Sunday. Although that idea had been in the forefront of her mind constantly since they had begun sharing a bed.

Rose's thoughts spun out of control. For a moment, the thought occurred to her that maybe Time Lords didn't. And maybe, despite the human DNA, maybe he was still too much Time Lord to want to. But that didn't make any sense, she told herself, because her first Doctor had definitely made it clear that he had _danced_ before.

Of course, the way he had said it, it didn't sound like he did it a lot.

Maybe, despite saying he loved her, despite the kissing, maybe he didn't want to _dance_ with _her_.

Oh, God, she hoped that wasn't true, because that would make the next 50 years or so incredibly frustrating.

And of course, despite their newfound openness, as was typical between them they weren't talking about it. Although Rose had to admit her mother was right, talking wasn't exactly the kind of communicating she had in mind.

_Mind out of the gutter, Tyler_ , she told herself.

~oOo~

The Doctor walked quickly down the flights of stairs. He knew he was confusing Rose, it had been written all over her face, but before she began to ask questions that he didn't know how to answer, he did what he had always done under difficult circumstances. He ran. Figuratively this time, rather than literally, since he didn't really want it to be obvious that he was running away.

He had initially been heading to the workshop, but before he realized he had done it, he had exited through the kitchen door and found himself in the garden. Outside, although night had definitely fallen, the moon was up and was providing enough light to see so he decided to take a walk.

Before he reached the stand of oak trees that bordered the edge of the lawn, he turned and looked back at the mansion. There was a light on in one of the rooms on the second floor. Rose's room. She was still awake. Perversely, he wanted to go and ask her to go for the walk with him despite the fact that the reason he was even outside was because he was avoiding her.

The cooling night air felt good. He wasn't feeling as hot as he initially had when he first found himself in this body, but he still wasn't entirely used to having a new core temperature. Actually, he was beginning to get used to most of the part human changes to his systems. Except for the lack of the respiratory bypass, which he did miss, his breathing wasn't really all that different than it had been. His ability to see timelines hadn't really been affected, although he suspected a number of his other Time Lord abilities, like his old ability to influence time around him, might be gone. He wouldn't know that until he actually tried to use them. His singular heart still felt odd, and its rate was much slower than it had been, but it wasn't particularly bothersome. But he was having a very difficult time adjusting to one very significant change.

The very human hormones coursing through his system.

As a full Time Lord, he had had moderate control of all of his body, from his hearts rate to his breathing, from his need to eat to his need to sleep. His body had been able to detox itself from poisons, alcohol intake, and even moderate amounts of radiation. And he had had almost complete control over his endocrine systems.

Not anymore.

Being part human, and if he were completely honest with himself possibly as much as half human in some areas, he had control over almost none of it. Particularly the hormone business.

From the earliest days that he had known Rose, he had desired her, but he had always been able, or mostly able, to control himself around her. The hand holding, the touching, the hugging…. He had wanted more but, in true Time Lord fashion, he had been able to repress those feelings and limit their relationship to a very close, but mostly chaste, friendship.

But now… being around her was frankly overwhelming. Kissing her, touching her, holding her hand… blimey, sometimes just being in the same room with her made his pulse, among other things, react. And instead of having it get easier to deal with, it was getting more and more difficult.

And other than holding her and caressing her face, he hadn't even touched her yet because he didn't trust himself to stop there.

Touching her in any way at all, and having her touch him, affected him so much he almost wanted to go back to his previous habit of wearing three shirts under his suit jacket. He probably would have, had it not been summer in London. His whole body ached from the need of her.

If this was normal, par for the course for humans, how on Earth did they cope with this?

After wandering for a while, he found himself at the man-made pond near the mansion that he and Rose had found the previous week. Sinking down on a large rock near the shore, he put his elbows on his knees, dropped his head into his hands and tried to figure out how to be around Rose without the sexual frustration killing him.

~oOo~

An hour later, after tossing and turning, mind racing over her worries, frustration and confusion over her relationship with the Doctor, Rose was still wide awake. Well, she might not be able to sleep, she thought, but on the bright side since she was awake she wasn't having a nightmare either.

Finally giving up on trying to sleep, she got up and decided to head down to the workshop to see how he was doing on his sonic. She automatically turned to grab a dressing gown and then changed her mind, deciding that the t-shirt and shorts were enough. The night was cooling off, but it was still fairly warm.

Rose tiptoed down the stairs, trying not to wake anyone, and made her way to the cellar. To her surprise, the workshop was dark. He wasn't there.

After flipping on the lights, she crossed the room and sat at the workbench. The pieces of his sonic weren't laid out on the countertop, so he probably hadn't even been here. Where could he be? She sighed, shaking her head. He had always told her not to wander off but had no compunction against wandering off himself.

After a few minutes, she decided that it was useless to sit in the empty workshop and pointless to go back to bed, so she went to the kitchen to make tea. As long as she could remember, her mother had always had that last cup of tea before bedtime, and she found she was developing the same habit.

Lord, she hoped she wasn't turning into her mother.

Scaring herself a bit with that thought, she comforted herself by deciding that in no way she would allow that to happen. She loved her mum but really didn't want to be like her.

As she boiled the water and pulled a box of teabags out of the cabinet, she heard the door softly open and close. Turning, she saw the Doctor appearing to sneak into the house. He stopped short when he saw her in the kitchen.

"Rose," he said in surprise. "I thought you had gone to bed."

"Where have you been?" It came out much sharper than she intended and she saw him wince. Inwardly Rose chided herself. Hadn't she just decided she wouldn't turn into her mother?

"I, uh, I mean I thought you were going to work on your sonic," she continued in a gentler tone of voice.

"When I got down here, I decided to take a walk instead," he told her.

"Want some tea?" she asked, turning to face the cabinets. Not knowing what to do with her nervousness and concerns about their relationship, she was intentionally not looking at him. "I was just going to make myself some."

"Sure. Can I help?"

"You could take the milk out of the refrigerator, and maybe put the sugar on the table."

As she heard him open and close the refrigerator door, inwardly she came to a decision.

"Doctor, are you upset with me?" she asked quietly, still facing away from him. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, of course not," he said, surprise evident in his voice. "Why would you think that?"

Rose turned back to face him. "'S just, you've been acting different all this past week," she said. "Almost like you've been avoiding me."

Oops, the Doctor thought. He had hoped she wouldn't notice. He stared at her, wondering for a split second how to answer.

"Nope," he replied with false cheerfulness. "Just been busy. Busy, busy, busy. Busy with Torchwood, busy with my sonic, just busy with... everything, really."

She crossed her arms and stared back at him. He could tell she wasn't sure whether to believe him. Well, to be fair, he wouldn't have believed him either if he were in her shoes. Then she got a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Well, if that's the case…" she said. She crossed the room, grabbed him and kissed him.

As Rose kissed him, to the Doctor it felt different from the ways she had kissed him before. This was more than a simple kiss; it was a promise. Even more than that, it was an invitation. He instinctively responded, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around her. At her silent urging his lips parted under hers. It was intoxicating, kissing her like this, feeling her lips and her tongue against his. Surely kissing Rose was one of the most fantastic experiences he had ever had, in any body, and for a moment he regretted every second they hadn't spent kissing ever since this version of him had been created.

Or actually ever since _run_.

She tightened her grip on him, slipping one hand under his jacket to wrap around his waist and moving the other upward to first caress the back of his neck and then run her fingers through his hair. The feel of her nails gently scrape his scalp set his body on fire from desire. He stifled a groan and gave himself over to the experience.

Eventually he became aware of how out of control he was beginning to feel. His heart was racing, his body was reacting…. Every cell in his body was screaming at him to shag her against the wall, on the table, on the floor… not just anywhere, but everywhere in turn. With great difficulty, he forced himself to gently push her away, hands shaking slightly with the effort.

It about killed him to see the hurt, confused expression on her face, especially knowing that he was the cause of it.

"What's the problem?" she asked a little breathlessly. "I thought… well, I _thought_ you were attracted to me."

He stared at her in disbelief. She was so beautiful, particularly now, with her skin flushed with desire and her hair slightly mussed. How on Earth could she not know how much he wanted her?

"Of course I am," he said, trying to catch his breath and somehow slow his heart rate. "Rose, I'm sorry. It's just, I can't…." His voice trailed off as he tried to remember why he had thought shagging her against the wall was a bad idea.

"You _can't_?" she asked, wide-eyed. His eyebrows shot into his fringe when he realized what she was thinking.

"Oh, no, no, no, I can, I definitely can," he said quickly, trying to reassure her. "Just not... here. Not at the mansion. Not with Jackie just down the hall." He grimaced. "And certainly not in here," he joked to lighten the mood, gesturing around him at the kitchen.

"Oh," she said with a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank _God_. You have no idea what I was thinking."

"Right now I have a pretty good guess," he said dryly.

She laughed. "Okay, I understand. And I _guess_ I don't blame you," she said. "But you should know, Mum's thought we've been shagging the whole time."

"What?" he exclaimed. "Ever since I've been here?"

"No," she said. "Well, yeah, just about ever since you've been here, but that's not what I meant. What I mean is that she thought that while we were traveling. The _whole_ time we were traveling," she added meaningfully.

"What!" It almost came out as a squeak. "Even before…"

"Even before you regenerated. When you were all leather and jumpers," she confirmed. "Why'd you think she slapped you so hard?"

"But… but I thought," he said, stuttering a little. "Well, I've always _assumed_ that you told her we weren't."

"I did," she replied. "She just didn't believe me."

Running his hands through his hair, he took a deep breath and blew it out in a rush. Jackie Tyler, the answer to his raging hormones. He scrubbed his face with his hands and wondered if he'd be able to look Jackie in the eye the next morning.


	9. Chapter Eight

Late Friday afternoon, Pete cornered the Doctor in the living room.

"Rose tells me you built a new sonic screwdriver," Pete said. "Can I see?" He sounded less like the head of a super-secret intelligence agency and more like a small child wanting to see another child's new toy.

The Doctor had spent most of the day, all that morning and most of the afternoon, putting the finishing touches on his new sonic and then programming it. It had more than a thousand settings. It was a far cry from what his old one had, the one that the full Time Lord Doctor had kept, but it was a start.

He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to Pete. The other man turned it over and over in his hands as he examined it.

"What's its power source?" Pete asked curiously.

"Ahhh, now that would be telling," the Doctor responded, trying, and completely failing, to hide a smirk.

Pete raised one eyebrow at his answer as he continued to look at it. He ran a finger along one side, accidentally pressing a button. The screwdriver whirred, the tip lit up, and the glass door of a curio cabinet on the other side of the room exploded. The Doctor winced.

"Wow!" Pete exclaimed.

The Doctor grabbed it back. "Careful," he scolded.

"Sorry," Pete said apologetically. "You built that just using the materials from my workshop?" He was dumbstruck.

"Yes. Well, no, not just your workshop," the Doctor replied, correcting himself. He yanked on his left ear. "I may have found one or two other items here and there. Well, I say found, more… borrowed. Well, I say borrowed…"

"You mean stole. From Torchwood?" The director of the Torchwood Institute snorted.

The Doctor made a face. "Stole is such a hard, nasty little word. More like appropriated. Mind you, I had to make significant changes to them in order to make them work."

"You know, you didn't have to nick it," Pete told him. "Considering everything you've done for Torchwood over the last two weeks, I would have given it to you. All you had to do was ask."

The Doctor had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. "Well, Pete..." he started, but then the other man interrupted him.

"Water under the bridge," Pete said, and then looked thoughtful. "Doctor, would it be possible for you to make another one of those?"

The Doctor thought about what it could mean to have even a simplified version of his sonic screwdriver in the hands of anyone at Torchwood. Based on the current condition of the curio cabinet, it wouldn't be pretty. "No," he said firmly.

"What if…"

"No."

"Pete, I thought I heard something break in here," Jackie said, walking into the room. She was wearing a pink, silk dressing gown, and her hair was wrapped up in a brightly colored bath towel. Her eyes widened when she saw the broken glass on the floor. "What on Earth?" She glared at the Doctor. "What did you do?"

"Oi!" he protested.

"Jacks, it wasn't the Doctor, it was me," Pete interjected quickly.

Jackie's eyes narrowed. "Maybe," she said disbelievingly, "but he was involved somehow, I just know it. I'll get someone in here to clean it up. Meanwhile, the two of you need to start getting ready. The party starts in less than two hours, and we have to be there early."

Pete Tyler, one of the richest and most powerful men on the planet, sighed the long suffering sigh of a hen-pecked husband.

"Jacks, we've got plenty of time," he told her. "I don't know about the Doctor here, but it'll only take me half an hour to shower, shave and get dressed."

At Pete's mention of the Doctor, Jackie turned to him. "And you," she said, shaking her finger at him, "you just remember you have to wear that tuxedo I bought you. And none of this 'it's bad luck' nonsense."

"I never said it was bad luck," he corrected. "I don't believe in luck, good or bad. Just that bad things happen when I wear one."

She shook her finger at him again. "You just put it on anyway. I'll expect you down here, dressed and ready to go, in one hour. And I don't know what you think you're doing with that hair of yours, but you make sure it looks nice, instead of how it usually looks."

"Oi!" he protested again. "It always looks nice. Better than nice, in fact."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "I still say you should have let me cut your hair." She ignored him as he scowled at her. "One hour," she said over her shoulder as she walked out of the room. "And not a minute more."

The Doctor and Pete exchanged glances and sighed.

~oOo~

Later, when the Doctor entered his bedroom to get ready for the party, he noticed the door to the en suite was open and Rose was nowhere to be found. After a moment, he remembered Rose having said something about her mother helping her to get ready and he guessed that was where she was now. First pulling off his clothes and laying them on the bed, he headed to the bathroom.

After showering, he stood in front of the sink staring into the mirror, tilting his head this way and that, first running his tongue across his teeth and then looking to see if he had missed a spot shaving. No, but he came to the conclusion that as much as he hated to admit it, Jackie was right, at least about his hair. It was getting shaggy. Luckily it had started out fairly short, so it still wasn't unreasonably long, but it definitely needed something for the party.

He ran his hands through his hair, trying to fluff it a bit. He had hoped it would dry that way, all fluffed up, but no matter what he did it seemed so… floppy. He used to use hair wax occasionally while traveling in the TARDIS, but he didn't have anything like that here. _Maybe Rose has something_ , he thought.

He opened one of the mirrored cabinets to look for some sort of hair product and spotted instead a small rectangular box with a prescription label on it. _Rose is on medication? Why didn't she mention anything?_ He picked it up to examine it, and his eyes widened when he realized what it was. Birth control pills.

For a moment he stopped breathing, and if asked, he would have sworn his heart stopped for a second as well. Why did Rose have birth control pills? He reminded himself that she had told him she hadn't been involved with anyone and certainly not to the extent that she needed to be on the pill, and what she had done before they had been left here wasn't his business anyway. Tamping down a surge of jealousy and trying not to jump to conclusions about her life before she had found him again, he stared at the small package.

He blinked when he saw the date on the prescription label. The date the prescription was filled was only a week earlier. A _week_ ago. And he had been in this universe for two and a half weeks. These pills weren't because she had been involved with someone else in the past, but because she intended to be involved with him in the future. He had been sure, particularly after his discussion with her last night, that that was the direction their relationship was headed, but to have conclusive proof in his hands that Rose had prepared for it a week ago…. A cocky grin spread across his face, one he was completely unable to wipe off while he finished getting ready.

He couldn't wait to get this party over with so that they could head for Cardiff.

~oOo~

Exactly one hour after Jackie had spoken to them, the Doctor and Pete stood at the window of Pete's study, looking out at the garden and waiting for the women in their lives.

The sun would not set for hours, and through the window the Doctor could see that the garden was a riot of color. There were flowers in every color of the rainbow in beds that lined the path that led around the edge of the garden and to the nearby woods. He knew the flowers were a fairly recent addition to the property. They had not been there the first time he and Rose had been to the mansion.

So much had changed since that first time they had walked across the garden, the Doctor thought. That first evening he and Rose had crashed a formal party for the parallel Jackie Tyler's birthday, posing as wait-staff. The evening had ended with Cybermen crashing through these very windows, and he, Rose and Pete escaping and ultimately being rescued in that very garden. He had worn a tuxedo that night, too.

Hopefully, in this body, wearing a tux wouldn't spell disaster as it had in previous bodies.

Remembering that night, it led him to think of Canary Wharf and losing Rose. He had found her again; well, actually, she had found him, and he was happier about that than he ever remembered being in any life. But something about Canary Wharf had always puzzled him, and now, standing next to Rose's stepfather, he finally had the opportunity to ask about it.

"Pete," he said, "I've always wondered about something, and perhaps you can answer it for me. During the battle of Canary Wharf, how did you know to catch Rose?"

Pete glanced in surprise at the Doctor, taken aback at the question that had come so unexpectedly. He was silent for a long time and then took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before answering.

"Doctor," he said quietly, "that was one of the most frightening experiences in our lives. Jackie, Mickey and I were standing in the lever room in our Torchwood building and Rose had gone back to you. Jackie was crying because she was certain she'd never see Rose again." His jaw tightened and he swallowed thickly. "All of a sudden, we could hear screaming, screaming like we had never heard before or since. Screaming so desperate that it crossed the Void, crossed universes." He turned to him, his voice choked with emotion. "We heard you scream. It shouldn't have been possible, but across the Void, in a completely different universe, we heard you screaming in terror. And somehow I knew what had happened. So I jumped and luckily I managed to catch her."

They both stood in silence, again remembering how close they had come to losing Rose in the Void for eternity.

"Thank you, Pete," the Doctor said eventually. His voice was low and full of repressed emotion. "I will never be able to thank you enough for that."

"No need to thank me, Doctor," Pete replied. "She's my daughter. I'd do anything for her."

And the Doctor was struck, and not for the first time, with what an extraordinary man Pete Tyler was. Either version he had known. The man who stood before him fought Cybermen and Daleks, helped save his planet, and saved Rose. And the other Pete, Rose's biological father, had given his life to fix a mistake Rose had made. That Pete Tyler had saved him and had also saved that version of Earth from Reapers. It was no wonder Rose was such an incredible person with a man like that for a father.

Using the excuse that he needed to check on Jackie, Pete left the room and the Doctor returned to looking out the window of the study. For just a moment he was back in the lever room, standing with his ear to the white wall, telepathically feeling her presence but not being able to get to her. He had stayed there until it faded, until he could no longer feel her there. He had lost so many people in the past and he always grieved, but losing her was like having part of his soul ripped from him. The only loss he had ever experienced that had been greater was losing Gallifrey.

He vigorously shook his head, trying to shake off the dark mood that had so quickly overtaken him. Canary Wharf was over, he reminded himself, and he needed to once and finally put it behind him. He had never quite managed to do it before the metacrisis, and he suspected that his other self wouldn't truly be able to put it behind him until he regenerated again. But he was here, with Rose, living the life he had never dreamed possible, living a life with her one day after another, the one adventure he had thought he could never have. Thinking of that was enough to lift his spirits, well, until he remembered the party they were supposed to attend that evening.

The Doctor sighed. He didn't need to look at a clock to know they'd be leaving for the Vitex party soon. A party he really, really he didn't want to go to. Restless, he tugged at his collar. He hated these black tie events. Regardless what planet you were on, they were all filled with boring people talking endlessly about boring things, invariably in uncomfortable clothing.

And he hated bow ties.

Just as he was thinking that dealing with a minor alien invasion would be preferable to attending the party, the sound of movement behind him distracted him from his thoughts.

"Well, what do you think?"

The Doctor turned and froze. Rose stood in the doorway, dressed in a full-length, strapless dark blue gown. It was embroidered with silver thread and crystals in swirling patterns that reminded the Doctor of stars in the night sky. Her hair had been pulled up into a chignon, tiny blonde curls intentionally escaping around her face and neck. A diamond and sapphire necklace hung around her neck and came to rest at the top of her cleavage, having the effect of drawing the eye there. As if he needed a necklace to draw his eye there. After a moment, he noticed that instead of the hoop earrings she usually wore, more diamonds and sapphires dangled from her ears. As she turned to show off the dress, the crystal beads on the gown glittered and the jewels at her throat and ears sparkled, reflecting the light in the room. He gaped at her.

"So what do you think?" Rose asked again nervously. She couldn't read the Doctor's expression. "What? Am I zipped up all the way? Do I have a price tag hanging somewhere?" She looked at her sides and back to check, but didn't see anything. She blanched. "Do I look… fat?"

Realizing his mouth still hung slightly open, he abruptly shut it and swallowed hard. Crossing the room and putting an arm around her bare shoulders, he pulled her into his side and gently planted a kiss on her temple.

"You. Look. Stunning," he said quietly. The delighted smile she gave him lit up her face and made her look all the more beautiful. Perhaps these black tie events weren't so bad after all.

"You don't look so bad yourself." She playfully poked him in the ribs. "By the way, I kinda like the bowtie."

Perhaps bowties weren't so bad either.

"Doesn't she look pretty?" Jackie asked, walking back into the room. She was also wearing a formal gown, hers in a mint green, but the Doctor wouldn't have noticed had she been wearing a dressing gown and bedroom slippers. Or a bin bag. "I did her hair myself. I used to do it all the time for everyone back home, and I still like to do it every once in a while. Keeps me in practice."

"Yes, she looks very pretty." Biggest understatement of the year. He still hadn't taken his eyes off Rose. He smiled at her. Then he took a deep breath and turned to Jackie. "And her hair looks very nice. Excellent job."

Jackie looked astounded at the unexpected compliment, and even Rose looked at him in surprise.

She took his arm and led him to the far side of the room. "Are you feeling alright?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, why?" he asked, puzzled.

"You just gave my mother a compliment," Rose said, chuckling. "That can only mean one of two things. Either you are sick, or the world is about to end."

~oOo~

The Vitex party was being held in a huge ballroom on the ground floor of the Vitex building in downtown London. The headquarters of the international company was a skyscraper that dominated the skyline and was located only a few short blocks from the bank of the Thames. Unlike many other corporately owned buildings in the area, the Vitex building only contained rooms dedicated to the exclusive use of the company; labs, meeting rooms, the ballroom and the offices of Vitex's management and staff. As the founder of Vitex as well as CEO and Chairman of the Board, Pete Tyler's office took up an entire floor near the top of the building. As he was also the Director of Torchwood, he rarely spent any time there anymore, spending more time in his Torchwood office than in his office at Vitex. Luckily, the company that produced the most successful vitamin-infused drinks on the planet was so well organized it ran like clockwork, even when he wasn't there in person.

Even so, Pete Tyler was a busy, busy man.

The annual Vitex party was a calculated event designed to convince shareholders that the business was still in good hands even with Pete's divided attention. The bigger and more impressive the party was, the more the shareholders were convinced that the company was doing well. And it didn't hurt that the company had been operating in the black for more than a decade. The greater the confidence in the company, and by extension Pete, the better the stocks did and the better the company bottom line.

With the President and a large number of celebrities scheduled to attend, as well as rumors of a new boyfriend for the Vitex heiress, the Vitex party was being treated in the press as the social event of the year and had brought out representatives of tabloids from all over the world. When the Tyler limo arrived at the building, a half an hour before the party officially was to begin, the Doctor got his first taste of fame. Oh, he had been well-known by aliens in their home universe, particularly by dangerous aliens, but he had never really experienced the fame of celebrity. Being the escort of one Rose Tyler was a whole new experience for him.

As the Doctor exited the limo and helped Rose to her feet as she followed him, he blinked as they were greeted by the near blinding flashes of more than a hundred cameras. Thankfully, the photographers were held back by velvet chords set up along the entrance to the building.

Jackie exited the limo right behind Rose. "Go on," she hissed, giving the Doctor a small push. Aware of the cameras, he tried not to glare at her. Pete got out of the limo and escorted Jackie into the building. Smiling at the Doctor, Rose took his arm and they followed her parents in.

Despite arriving early, the invited staff and most of the board members were already there, as were a number of people the Doctor recognized as from being from Torchwood. Among others, he recognized Frank Collins, who was both Torchwood 4's doctor and Pete's personal friend, and Todd Richards, Pete's administrative assistant, who seemed to be supervising the catering staff. To the Doctor's surprise Jake Simmonds, Pete Tyler's second-in-command at Torchwood, was there as well. As soon as Rose saw him, she crossed the room to him, a huge smile lighting up her face. The Doctor trailed behind.

"I thought you were still in America," she exclaimed, gathering Jake in a big hug.

"Finished up early," he said, grinning at her. "Grabbed my tux and came straight here." He kissed her on the cheek.

Jake then turned to him. "Doctor," he said, shaking his hand, "I heard you were here. Good to see you again."

"You, too," the Doctor responded, a forced smile on his face. He closed the space between Rose and himself and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "How was America?"

Instead of answering, Jake asked, "Where's your dad, Rose?"

"Not sure," she said, looking around. "He and Mum were here just a minute ago."

Jake looked around as well. "There he is, over by the bar. I've got to go; I need to talk to him right away. I'll catch you both later."

After he had left, Rose turned on the Doctor.

"What was all that about?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked, not looking at her.

"You know exactly what I mean," she said pointedly. She raised one eyebrow. "You can't _possibly_ be jealous of Jake."

"Of course not," he said, jaw tightening.

She tried to hide a smile. "You know, you have absolutely no reason to be jealous of anyone, Doctor. Particularly not Jake."

"Not that I'm admitting anything," the Doctor said, "because I'm not jealous, but why 'particularly not Jake'?"

"Because," she said, smiling mischievously, "he's _much_ more likely to be interested in you than me."

~oOo~

Two hours later the annual Vitex party was in full swing; the ballroom was filled to capacity and the party threatened to spill out into the corridors, meeting rooms and lobby. The far end of the ballroom was set up for dancing and had an orchestra playing popular dance tunes, while the other end was filled with small, candlelit tables. The bar, the most crowded place in the whole party, was set off to one side.

The Doctor walked through the room, champagne glass in one hand, the other free to grab hors d'oeuvres off the trays of the passing wait-staff. Which he did every time someone passed with a tray. No matter what was on it. Rose had told him they weren't serving pears in any form so he thought he was safe.

Meanwhile, Pete and Jackie were mingling with the Vitex board members, high ranking politicians and other guests. For a moment, he was struck by the oddness of seeing the Jackie he knew interact and hold her own with some of the most powerful people of this world. When he had met her, he could never have imagined she'd come so far from her life on the Powell Estate. He was proud of her.

Although he'd never tell her that.

Meanwhile, Rose had wandered off somewhere. Looking for someone she wanted him to meet, she had said. He vaguely wondered who it could be.

It couldn't be Harriet Jones, he thought, as he knew she hadn't arrived yet. And Rose hadn't mentioned anyone she was particularly close to outside of her former, and future, coworkers in Cardiff. All of whom he'd met anyway.

Grabbing a handful of some sort of miniature crabmeat pastries off the tray of a passing waiter, he tossed one in his mouth and looked around. He recognized the parallel version of a famous movie star, whose name escaped him, from Rose's home world. Another familiar face, this one a blonde pop star, was surrounded by young men three deep. There were also the parallel versions of famous writers and musicians, actors and politicians, many of whom he had met in his original universe.

"Doctor?" Rose's voice came from behind him and he turned. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped when he realized who was with her.

A very petite, very pretty woman stood next to Rose. The full-length, one shoulder glittery red gown she was wearing set off her warm brown eyes and skin, and her hair was pulled up and fastened by a set of hair combs the same color as her dress. She smiled tentatively at him, and a huge grin swept across his face.

"Martha Jones!" he exclaimed in delight.

The parallel Martha glanced sideways at Rose. "Erm," she said helplessly.

"Oh, oh yes. Hello," the Doctor said, thrusting out his hand. "John Smith. And you must be… Martha Jones?"

"Yes," she said, shaking his hand. "I'm Rose's…"

Rose's eyes grew big, and she shook her head slightly at Martha. There was a time and a place to discuss exactly how and why she knew Martha, and this was neither the time nor the place. Thankfully the Doctor didn't notice her gesture, she thought. She hoped.

"She's Mum's doctor," Rose quickly interjected. "And Martha, this is my… my…" She looked at the Doctor, puzzled, not certain how she should refer to him. Boyfriend just didn't sound right in describing the Doctor.

To her surprise, his face broke out into another wide, open mouthed grin. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side. "Yep, that about covers it," he said happily.

"What?" Rose asked in confusion.

"I'm yours," he said. "And you're mine."


	10. Chapter Nine

The Doctor put his empty champagne flute on the tray of a passing waiter, somehow managing to snag three new ones at the same time without the waiter slowing down, or even appearing to notice. He handed a glass each to Rose and Martha, then took a sip from his own.

"Soooo," he said, dragging out the syllable. "How long have you been a doctor?"

"Oh, I just finished my residency last year," she responded after taking a sip from her glass. "I've been in private practice ever since. I spend one day a week in the free clinics, but the rest of my time I see my own patients."

"And you see Jackie?" he asked. "That's how you two know each other?"

"Yes," answered Rose, probably a bit too quickly. "We met last week when I took Mum to see her. As soon as I knew she wanted to come tonight, I invited her and her fiancé. Where is he, by the way?"

"Tom wandered off somewhere that way." Martha gestured vaguely at the rest of the room with her free hand. "He said he was headed to the bar, but I think he just wants to check out that singer, Sherí something or other. You know, the one with the blonde hair and the big…"

"Yes, I know," Rose interjected, strongly suspecting that this wasn't Martha's first glass of champagne. "So, are you two having a good time?"

"Oh, yes," Martha said, her face lighting up. "This has been fantastic. Thank you so much for inviting us."

"Thank you so much for coming," Rose said gratefully. "These things are usually filled with people I don't know. It's nice to see a friendly face."

"I'd go better find Tom and pry him away from that girl before he makes a complete and utter fool of himself," Martha said, laughing. "Sometimes he can be such a little fanboy."

"Just make sure you don't leave before I introduce you to Harriet Jones."

"The President?" Martha's eyes widened and she grinned. "No way. Absolutely. Wouldn't miss it."

As she wandered off, slightly unsteadily because of her 5 inch heels, probably, in the general direction of the pop star, the Doctor turned to Rose and grinned.

"Martha Jones," he said, shaking his head. "It's almost as if our lives are entangled with hers in both universes. Do you know any other parallels of my previous companions?"

"Not sure," she responded, raising an eyebrow. "I don't know Sarah Jane, and of course Jack isn't here. And we were never able to find a parallel Donna in any universe. But you know I don't know who any of your other companions were," she said pointedly. "You didn't even mention Sarah Jane until we ran into her."

He winced. That had been an unspoken sore spot between them for weeks after seeing her. And it didn't help that the business with Reinette had happened right after that. They had worked through both of those situations eventually, thankfully rather quickly he had thought at the time, but evidently it wasn't completely over. Or at least that's what he thought until Rose gave him a mischievous grin and kissed him, wiping the lipstick off afterwards with her thumb.

"I don't care who you _traveled_ with before," she whispered in his ear, "as long as you _finish_ with me."

The Doctor's eyes widened at the blatant innuendo. He swallowed nervously before a small smirk crossed his lips. They were together now, in ways they hadn't been while they had been traveling, but he still wasn't completely used to it. Grateful for it, yes, but not completely used to it.

And they weren't _that_ together. Yet.

But soon. Hopefully very, very soon.

She grinned at him, the flirtatious grin she had always saved for him, tongue just barely caught between her teeth. He realized he was grinning back. His was a little lopsided and slightly mimicked hers in that the tip of his tongue touched his teeth as well. It was the same grin that she had always called goofy, but he knew she loved it just the same.

A commotion at the door of the ballroom made them turn in response. A half dozen men and women dressed in black suits entered the room and began to scan it. It was clear from the earpods in their ears as well as the guns holstered on their hips that they were a security detail of some kind. After a moment one of the men signaled to someone in the hall and an older woman wearing an unfortunately unflattering formal mauve dress entered, surrounded by several other security personnel. From where the Doctor and Rose were standing, it was difficult to make out who the woman was.

"Secret Service," Rose whispered. "No one but them uses Lumic's version of earpods anymore. Everyone else has gone to a different system, even though the earpods were better technology in some ways. No one wants to be compared to Lumic in any way."

"So why do they use them?" the Doctor asked quietly.

"Because the Secret Service only reports to the president, so they really don't care what anyone else thinks."

As they were speaking, several of the agents broke away from the group to guard all the exits to the ballroom.

"So they're Secret Service? Not MI-5?"

"Not in this world," she replied. "There's the NSA, which is the National Security Agency, the ISS, which is the International Security Service, the Secret Service, which primarily guards the president, and of course Torchwood. Military Intelligence is a completely separate thing and doesn't involve civilians at all."

"So if they're Secret Service, is that…" the Doctor began.

"Harriet Jones." Rose nodded and grinned.

As they watched, they saw Pete cross the ballroom to greet Great Britain's president. After a moment, they saw the President and Pete look over at them and he motioned for the Doctor and Rose to join them.

After Rose set their half-empty champagne flutes down on a nearby table, she took the Doctor's hand and their fingers automatically entwined. "Let's go," she said and they crossed the crowded room. As they approached the President, two of the black-suited agents broke off from the rest of the group and stepped in front of them, hands near but not quite touching the weapons at their hips. The President waved her hand absently and the agents allowed them to pass.

"This is not the time and place for our discussion, of course," Harriet Jones was saying to Pete, "but new information has come to my attention since we last spoke and I need to discuss with you Torchwood's role in all this. We need to hold our meeting sooner than we originally planned. We also need to talk about Mr. Simmonds' recent trip overseas."

"Certainly, ma'am," he replied. "At your convenience."

"Then I shall expect you, Director Tyler, and Mr. Simmonds tomorrow at 8:00," she said. "Please be prompt. Rose," she continued, turning to her. "It's lovely to see you again."

"Thank you, ma'am," Rose replied. "It's nice to see you, too."

"And who is this with you?"

"Ma'am, this is…" she began.

"John Smith," the Doctor interrupted with a small nod of his head. "An honor to meet you."

"Harriet Jones, President of Great Britain," she said, thrusting out her hand. The Doctor shook it with a sense of déjà vu. For a moment, he almost expected her to pull out her ID.

"The Doctor is my…" Rose continued and then stopped, glancing at him. She was still uncertain how to refer to him. Boyfriend just sounded odd.

Harriet Jones raised her eyebrows. "'The Doctor'?"

The Doctor cleared his throat, and Rose inwardly cringed as she suddenly remembered she wasn't supposed to call him that around people they didn't know well.

"That's me," he said. "Bit of a nickname."

"What are you a doctor of?" Harriet asked.

"A good many things, actually," he replied evasively, pulling on his left ear.

"Really. Like what?" she asked.

"Oh, you know, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, literature. The usual," he supplied. "I'm rather good at languages as well."

"Really? Perhaps we could use you in our foreign diplomatic corps," she said.

Rose looped her arm through the Doctor's. "Ah, no, ma'am," she said with a laugh, before the Doctor could say anything. "The Doctor is good at many things, but being diplomatic is not one of them. He has a disturbing tendency to be blunt to the point of rudeness."

The Doctor shot her a look, and she grinned teasingly at him.

"Ah," the President replied with her own smile. "Yes. Being forthright is considered a virtue in many places, but not in either politics or diplomacy."

Everyone, other than the security detail, laughed politely.

President Jones pursed her lips and looked puzzled for a moment. "The Doctor," she said thoughtfully, "why does that name sound so familiar?" Harriet Jones's eyes narrowed as she looked at the man in question. "I seem to recall a report about a 'Doctor' who was involved in the take down of John Lumic. That wouldn't happen to have been you by any chance?"

The Doctor and Rose exchanged concerned glances with Pete. He could get rid of the internet files on himself, but he couldn't erase people's memories of him.

"Yes, ma'am, that was me," he told her.

"That was good work," she said. "Excellent work in fact. But I don't recall hearing anything about you after that. It's almost as if you fell off the face of the earth. Where have you been, may I ask?"

"Here and there," he answered with a shrug. "I've been… traveling."

"Traveling?" she asked. "But that was more than seven years ago. You can't mean to say you were traveling all that time."

He nodded vigorously. "Yep. Pretty much. That's what I do… did. Travel. Natural born traveler, me. Spent most of my life traveling."

"Does that mean you'll be leaving again soon?"

Putting an arm around Rose, the Doctor smiled at her and she smiled back. "No, ma'am. I plan on sticking around," he answered. He then turned back to Harriet Jones. "But if I ever do decide to leave, I won't be going alone."

"Yes, I can see that," she responded with a small smile.

"Let me through," a loud voice ordered, and they all turned. Two agents were preventing Jackie from approaching them.

"Oh, look. Here comes trouble," the Doctor whispered in Rose's ear as the agents received orders in their earpods to let Jackie through. Rose jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, but she was unable to completely stifle a giggle.

"Jackie, pleasure to see you again," Harriet Jones said when she had joined them.

"Very nice to see you, too, ma'am," Jackie answered. "Mind you, it would have been a lot sooner if some of your guards here had let me through when I asked the first time." This was accompanied with a glare at all the agents.

"Yes, sorry about that. They've been a bit over-protective of me as of late."

Jackie looked like she was going to continue complaining so Rose quickly changed the subject. "Ma'am, if I might ask a favor, I have a friend who would really like to meet you. Would that be alright?"

"Of course, my dear," Harriet responded. "Is your friend here?"

"Yeah, she's right over there," Rose said, gesturing at the crowd near the pop singer. "She's the one in the red dress trying to pull her fiancé away from Sherí."

They all looked across the room at Martha, who was leading Tom away from the crowd surrounding the pop star.

"Why don't you get her and bring her over now?" suggested Harriet.

"Yes, ma'am," Rose said with a smile, and walked away to get Martha.

Later, Rose having fulfilled her obligations to her parents by attending the party, and to Martha by introducing her and her fiancé, Tom Milligan, to Harriet Jones, she grabbed the Doctor's hand and pulled him down the hallway and into an open doorway.

Rose flipped a switch on the wall and the room was flooded with light. The room she had pulled him into was an empty meeting room of some sort and didn't appear to have been used in a while. Several long rectangular tables had been placed against the two of the walls, with corresponding chairs stacked nearby and a whiteboard on a stand shoved into a corner. Otherwise the room was empty. As soon as they entered she turned to him.

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

The Doctor looked at her in surprise. "For what?" he asked.

"We both knew that you needed to keep a low profile and what do I do? First time we go out, I tell Harriet Jones who you are. Harriet Jones, the _president_ of Great Britain." He cupped her face in his hands and grinned at her, looking exceptionally pleased. "What are you so happy about?" she asked. "I blew it."

His grin widened. "Rose, you called me the Doctor automatically, without even thinking about it. A little over a week ago you didn't even believe I _was_ the Doctor."

She smiled ruefully and he bent to kiss her. It was the first time they had been alone together since early that morning, and he suddenly felt that that had been an incredibly long time. Much too long. All his previous good intentions forgotten, he deepened the kiss, coaxing her mouth open, tasting the champagne she had had earlier. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close, and he felt his body begin to respond to her nearness.

The orchestra had been playing a variety of dance tunes all evening, the music filling the ballroom and echoing down the hallway. As soon as Rose heard the opening strains of the next song the orchestra was starting, she broke away and grinned.

"Come on," she said. "Let's dance. They're playing our song." As he took her hand and began to walk to the door, she pulled him back and shook her head. "No, right here."

"I thought you said that this was your song with Jack Harkness," he said, raising one eyebrow and pulling her back into his arms to the sounds of _Moonlight Serenade_.

"Nah," she said. "Not since Albion Hospital. When we talked about dancing. It became our song then."

It both felt like yesterday and a lifetime ago, discussing dancing and _dancing_ with her during World War II. Two lifetimes ago, actually, if he thought about it, from his ninth self 'til now. For a moment he was taken back to that incredible night of just that once everyone living followed by dancing around the console with Rose. It was one of the happiest times he'd had during that regeneration. He smiled at the memory.

"I thought _In the Mood_ was our song," he said, thinking of one of the songs they had danced to in the TARDIS.

"That is, too," she answered, "but it's too fast. This is nice." She rested her head on his shoulder as they swayed to the music.

Too soon the song was over and the orchestra began one with a quicker beat. Still they stood there in the deserted room, swaying to a song only they could hear.

"We should get back," he said eventually.

"Uh huh," she answered. Neither of them moved to leave; instead they continued to stand there, slowly swaying.

"Mum will be looking for me," she said softly a few minutes later.

"Can't have that," he responded in a low voice.

Song after song continued to play, and they continued to slowly sway to the music, her head on his shoulder and his arms around her waist. Finally she pulled away from him, took his hand and began to walk towards the door.

When they got there, instead of walking out she closed the door and pulled his head down to hers. Automatically he wrapped his arms around her, turning to lean against the wall and pull her into his embrace. As she deepened the kiss into a proper snog, she ran her hands through his hair, one hand dropping to caress the back of his neck, and she heard him quietly moan with pleasure.

She leaned into him, molding her body into his and, with a groan, he tightened his grip on her, simultaneously pulling her closer and thrusting his hips forward. A rush of heat pooled in her stomach and moved lower as she felt evidence of his desire pressing hard against her. If she had had any questions about his attraction to her before, she had no doubts anymore. She pulled away to stare at him and he opened his eyes to stare back, breathing hard. He looked deliciously rumpled, she thought, his hair a mess and her bright red lippie all over his face. A smile played around her lips as inwardly she came to a decision. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out a handkerchief, she wiped his face and leaned towards his ear.

"Mum and Dad are going to be busy here for hours," she said in a low voice as she stuck the lipstick-covered cloth back into his pocket. "And Tony is staying at Mrs. McDonald's tonight. Even the staff will have gone home. There's no one at the mansion right now."

The Doctor knew exactly what she was suggesting. He hadn't wanted their first time to be at the mansion, but right at that moment he couldn't bring himself to care where it happened, just so long as it happened soon. Very, very soon. And although he had always hated teleports and vortex manipulators, he would have given almost anything to have either one at the moment. He took a deep, ragged breath. "How fast can we get back to the mansion?" he asked.

"Let's find out, shall we?" She smiled flirtatiously, tongue touching her teeth, and put out her hand. "Gimme your mobile. I don't have mine with me."

He looked down again at the form fitting bodice of her dress, the way it hugged her body, accentuating every curve... "No, I don't suppose you do," he said huskily. He forced himself to tear his eyes away, pulled the phone out of his pocket and handed it to her.

Rose phoned the driver of the limousine and made arrangements for him to meet them in back at the service entrance.

"To avoid the press," she told him after she rang off. She slipped the mobile back into his jacket pocket. "I just need to go and find Dad to tell him we're going. If I tell Mum, all I'll get is an argument."

He laughed. As she left to find Pete, he leaned back against the wall and ran his hands through his hair. He took several deep breaths, unconsciously holding the tip of his tongue against the back of his teeth. His heart was still pounding, and not from desire this time. Well, not entirely. Oh, the desire was still there, most definitely it was still there, but so was something else he wasn't expecting. Nervousness. It wasn't as if this would be his first time, he told himself. Well, it would be in this body, but still. He had been a father, and a grandfather for goodness sake. But this was Rose.

The level, the strength of his feelings for Rose were beyond anything he had ever experienced before. Oh, they always had been strong. Almost from the first minute he had met her he had loved her. And those feelings had just grown stronger after his regeneration. That body, his looks, his personality, even his accent had been influenced by his love for her. But since the metacrisis…. His feelings for her had grown exponentially. He not just loved her, he needed her, he desired her, he _craved_ her. And it terrified him.

He was startled when she returned almost immediately. "I told Dad we were going back to the mansion, and he told me that they'd be at least another few hours. After we get back, I'm just going to send the limo back here."

"You didn't tell him why we were going back," he almost squeaked, and he cleared his throat to try to bring it back into its normal range. She looked at him like he was an idiot, and he realized he was one. "Sorry, of course not. You'd never do anything like that. No one else's business why we'd be going back so soon, anyway. Particularly not Pete's. Or Jackie's. Really, really not Jackie's business. Really, really, really not…" He realized he was rambling again.

She stared at him. "Are you alright?"

"Me?" And now it truly did come out an octave higher than he intended. He cleared his throat again. "Of course. Never better. Never, never, never…"

He couldn't seem to stop his gob, so Rose did it for him, closing the distance between them again and covering his mouth with her own. He sank into the kiss, feeling like he was falling and not wanting to ever stop. She pulled away and wiped the rest of her lipstick from his mouth, this time with her thumb.

"Let's go," she said, taking his hand, and he would have followed her anywhere.

In the back of the limo, she pulled him in for a kiss again, unbuttoning the jacket of his tux and slipping her hands underneath it. He pulled her to himself, pulling her half onto his lap, and closed his eyes as she kissed his throat. She untied his bowtie and he yanked it off and shoved it in a pocket.

The limo ride was both interminably long and way too short at the same time. As they pulled up to the mansion, they were both breathing hard but still fully dressed, in deference to the driver the Doctor told himself. He felt jittery. Feeling out of control in any way, in his surroundings or now in particular in his body, had always made him panic, and he desperately tried to rein in his anxiety. This was Rose Tyler, the love of his life. The love of his lives, he reminded himself. And somehow this thought did nothing to relieve his nervousness.

They stepped out of the limo. As it pulled away, he pulled her into his arms, kissing her until they were both breathless.

"Let's go inside," she suggested in a low voice when they broke apart. She took his hand and squeezed it.

Heart pounding, he stared at her, strongly suspecting his longing and desire were written all over his face. Finding he was completely unable to speak, a true rarity, he nodded dumbly and they turned towards the mansion.

And he stopped.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Look at that window," he said quietly, all nervousness suddenly gone. "In the corner room on the second floor."

"That's Mum and Dad's room," she said.

He nodded. "There's a light from a torch moving in it. And I saw a shadow cross the window. Someone is in there."

The Doctor let go of her and started running the short distance to the house, pulling his mobile out of the inside pocket of his jacket and dialing almost in one move. Rose followed as quickly as she could in four inch stiletto heels. Finally she stopped and pulled off her shoes, reminding herself wryly that she was with the Doctor. She should have known better than to wear shoes she couldn't run in. She hiked up her dress and followed him.

Meanwhile, the Doctor had made it to the front door and was talking quietly into his mobile. "Pete, we have a problem here. Someone broke into the mansion and is searching it even as we speak."

Rose had joined the Doctor on the doorstep of the mansion. He noticed she was holding her shoes in one hand.

"You need to get someone here right away," he said into the phone.

" _On it_ ," Pete responded into his ear and immediately rang off.

"Ready, Rose?" he asked, turning towards her.

"Always," she answered, and then remembered something. "Do you have a key? Cos I haven't got one in this dress."

"Always." He grinned at her mischievously and pulled his new sonic screwdriver out of an inside pocket of the jacket of his tux.

He took one last look at her, appreciating the view for a split second before turning and sonicking the lock. Entering the mansion, they stopped in the foyer and listened. Rose bent to quietly set her shoes on the floor, momentarily jealous of the black Converse he was wearing.

"Whoever it is is headed out the back door," the Doctor said, taking her hand, and started to move quickly towards the kitchen.

They were too late. The kitchen door was still swinging back and forth, and the back door stood open. Crossing to it, they looked out. Despite the outdoor flood lights that had come on automatically, they saw no one. Whoever it was had disappeared into the night.

"Damn," Rose said.


	11. Chapter Ten

The Doctor ran out the back door into the garden and then around the house. Meanwhile Rose began to search inside in case they were wrong about the intruder having left. By the time they had each completed a thorough search, a Torchwood van pulled up to the front of the mansion, followed closely behind by the limo carrying Pete and Jackie Tyler. The Torchwood field agents left the van and immediately began a perimeter search of the grounds while Pete and Jackie got out of the automobile.

“What’s going on?” Pete asked as the Doctor jogged up to him.

“Not sure yet,” he answered. “When we pulled up, we noticed the light from a torch in one of the rooms.”

“Which room?” Jackie demanded from Pete’s side.

The Doctor looked from one to the other. “Yours.”

A momentary look of concern passed over Jackie’s face. “Well, all I can say is thank goodness Tony’s at Mrs. McDonald’s tonight. What did they want?”

“Well, we don’t know if it was a they. It might have been, although the evidence points to a single individual.” The Doctor crossed his arms and grimaced. “As to what he or she wanted, we won’t know that until we do an inventory of the house.”

“Do you think it could have been a burglary?” Pete asked.

“Maybe,” said Rose, exiting the house and coming to join them on the drive. She had taken the time to slip on a pair of flat-heeled shoes. “I looked around a bit and I didn’t notice anything missing. I didn’t look hard, but the computer’s still there, as is the telly. On the other hand, we did surprise whoever it was. Maybe the person didn’t have time to grab anything.” Jackie made a move to head towards the house and Rose stopped her. “I’m sorry, Mum, but you can’t go in yet. We’ll need to dust for fingerprints first. When you do go in, we’ll need you to go through everything and see if anything’s missing. Particularly in your jewelry box since whoever it was was in your room when we got here.”

Jackie nodded tightly as Pete put his arm around his wife.

The Doctor cleared his throat and then jerked his head toward the mansion. Leaving Pete and Jackie in the drive, he and Rose went back inside.

“Where do you want to start?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Might as well start here.”

“Torchwood will handle the fingerprints, although I doubt there will be any,” Rose said.

“Really?” the Doctor asked, his mouth twisting into a small grin. “Are you deducting, Miss Tyler?”

“Absolutely,” she replied, unable to keep a smile off her face despite the seriousness of the situation. “The mansion isn’t without security. It has deadbolts, an internal alarm system and is wired into the Torchwood security system. Yet whoever did this managed to bypass all of that and get in without alerting anyone. If they are professional enough for that, they are professional enough not to leave fingerprints.

“What concerns me, though,” she continued, “is how they knew the mansion would be empty. The party was well publicized, but usually there’s someone here, at least staff or something. But whoever it was seemed to know the mansion would be totally empty, even of Mrs. McDonald and Tony.”

“Or they just didn’t care,” the Doctor pointed out.

“Oh, I don’t want to even think about that,” Rose said.

While the Torchwood team dusted for prints and other evidence the intruder might have accidentally left, the Doctor and Rose did their own investigation. They split up, Rose examining the ground floor, the Doctor starting with Pete and Jackie’s room. Although he wasn’t familiar with all of Jackie’s jewelry, there was enough still there, real jewels instead of paste, that would hint at this not being a question of simple theft. Still, the bedroom was where the intruder had been interrupted, so it was possible he or she just hadn’t had the time to grab anything upon hearing the motor of the limo.

He quickly checked the other rooms. Most were empty, being used only for guests, and Tony’s seemed untouched, which made sense as even an intruder would know that there was nothing of value in it. Rose’s also didn’t look like it had been touched, although he wasn’t certain he’d be able to tell if it had been. He wasn’t aware if Rose owned any jewelry other than the hoops she typically wore. Even the jewelry she had worn this evening had been borrowed. All in all, however, none of the other rooms on the upper floors looked like they had been searched, let alone had anything stolen from them.

Until he reached his own.

On the surface it seemed untouched as well, but he could tell immediately it wasn’t. A tiny adjustment to a pillow, a drawer that was almost but not quite closed, his clothes and shoes in the wardrobe just slightly moved, all told him that his room had been carefully, and possibly professionally, searched. And the items on the shelf above his clothes, the ones that had come with him in his pockets from the TARDIS, had been gone through as well. He could tell that each was in a slightly different place. Including the small velvet bags that contained the gems and other items of value that was the entire nest egg he had brought with him. They had been gone through, but they were still there.

After he finished checking the rooms on the upper floors, he joined Rose on the ground floor. Jackie and Pete had been allowed to enter the house, and they were standing in the living room, waiting for the go ahead from the Torchwood staff that it was alright for them to touch things. Jackie was standing ramrod straight, jaw clenched, watching the agents as they finished dusting the ground floor of her home for prints. Although necessary, the Doctor knew that to Jackie, this was as much a violation as the intruder had been. But she didn’t complain, and he realized that the years spent as the wife of the Director of Torchwood had strengthened her. Or perhaps, he thought, she always had been made of sterner stuff and the experiences of the past years had just brought it to the surface. After all, she had managed to raise Rose alone on a council estate, and look how Rose turned out.

“It’s about time you got down here,” she said sharply when she spotted him. “I blame you for this. I don’t know how, but somehow this is your fault.”

And _there_ was the Jackie he knew, he thought ruefully.

“Mum, please,” Rose scolded, and then turned to him. “We didn’t find anything in particular out of order, at least not at first glance.” At a meaningful glance from the Doctor, she continued. “Mum, I think they are done in the kitchen. Why don’t we go make a pot of tea and then go check your room.”

Jackie looked at each of them in turn. At the pointed expressions on their faces she sighed and then she and Rose headed towards the kitchen. The Doctor waited until Jackie was out of earshot before turning to Pete.

“This was no simple robbery,” he said softly to Pete to make certain he wouldn’t be overheard.

“How can you be so sure?” Pete asked, matching his tone and volume.

“Not only was the intruder in your room,” he answered, “but my room was searched as well. And I have, let’s just say, some items of _intrinsic_ value that I was planning on selling at some point or another, and those items are still there.”

“Is there any chance that the intruder just missed them?”

“No,” he said flatly. “They had also been moved. Not by much, mind, but enough that I would be able to tell.”

Pete Tyler looked troubled. “If it wasn’t theft, then what did they want?” he asked.

The Doctor pursed his lips and shook his head. “It might have been a theft, but there was nothing simple about it. And as for what they wanted, I dunno yet.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Pete, I assume you have a safe.”

“Yes, but I've already checked it,” Pete responded. “It doesn’t look like it's been touched.”

“Check it again,” the Doctor said. Pete nodded.

Once they were in his study, Pete walked to one of the bookcases and reached under one of the shelves to press a small button located on the back wall behind some books. Nearby, a panel slid outward and to one side, revealing a safe with an electronic keypad built into the wall.

“I checked this first, while you were still upstairs.”

“Did you open it?”

Pete nodded. “Was one of the first things I did after the agents were done in here.” He turned back to the safe, quickly typed in a code, and the door swung open. Pete stared into the safe for a minute before shaking his head. “I don’t think anything’s missing.” He reached into the safe, pulled out the contents and quickly rifled through them. “I really don’t keep much in here. A few contracts, a few stocks, some money…. It all appears to be here.”

“If they didn’t plan on taking anything, why search the bedrooms?” the Doctor wondered aloud.

Pete took a deep breath and turned to him. “Other than the architect and construction workers and the like, not many people know this but I have another safe upstairs in our room. Even Jackie doesn’t know about it. We should probably check that one as well.”

~oOo~

Pete and Jackie’s room was a large, corner room at the front of the mansion. It was more of a suite than a bedroom, as it featured a sitting area and a separate dressing room which led into the en suite. Professionally decorated as was the rest of the house, it had been done in a pale peach with a subtle floral pattern which echoed the style of Rose’s room.

When the Doctor and Pete got there, Jackie and Rose were already going through her belongings.

“Everything of Mum’s appears to be here,” Rose said to them as they entered the room, “and she thinks Dad’s stuff is here, too.”

“We need to check the safe,” the Doctor told her.

“Safe? What safe?” Jackie interjected. “There’s no safe in here. The safe is downstairs.”

“Actually, there is a safe in here, Jacks,” Pete told her. Ignoring the possible coming tirade of his wife, he rolled the bed away from its location in the center of the room and rolled up the large Oriental rug which lay on the floor, revealing the floorboards.

“This section of the floor was designed like a Chinese puzzle box,” he said as he got down on his hands and knees. He carefully slid one of the floorboards down a fraction of an inch and then over to the side. He repeated the movements several times before lifting up a section of the floor. Underneath was a small safe, flush with the subflooring.

Jackie stared at her husband. “And when exactly were you going to tell me that this was here?” she demanded.

“Jacks, you really didn’t need to know. I only have a few things in here, things that I don’t trust to store at Torchwood.”

“You have alien stuff in here? In my bedroom?” Jackie said incredulously. “You know how dangerous aliens are.”

“Oi!” the Doctor protested. “Standing right here, Jackie.”

“I didn’t mean you, ya plum,” she responded, rolling her eyes. She crossed her arms and stared at him. “Although I coulda. You and danger are as thick as thieves, you are. We’ve been here for seven years without any problems, but you get here and in the space of two weeks my only daughter gets kidnapped and my house gets broken into.”

“Mum, this is not the Doctor’s fault,” Rose interjected. “You can’t blame everything on him. And we don’t even know why the house was broken into. Besides, we wouldn’t even have known the house was broken into if he and I hadn’t come home early.”

Jackie looked suspiciously at the two of them. “And why exactly did the two of you leave so early anyway?” She threw a hand up. “No, don’t answer that. I really don’t wanna know.”

The Doctor felt his face grow abnormally warm. Inwardly cursing his new, and rather primitive, cardiovascular system, he really hoped he wasn’t blushing. Ignoring Jackie, he crossed the room and bent down next to Pete. He looked in the hole that held the safe. “Any problems?”

“For some reason the lock on this isn’t working. I’ve typed in the code, but it’s not taking,” Pete said.

The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. He sonicked the lock and the door to the safe swung open on its own.

“That’s really pretty handy,” Pete said.

“Oh, yeah,” the Doctor responded emphatically. “Doesn’t have near the settings the old one did, but it’ll do. For now.”

“Doctor, is there any chance…” Pete began.

“No,” he said flatly, putting his screwdriver back in his pocket.

“Not even…”

“No.”

“Dad, you might as well give up now. The other Doctor didn’t even give _him_ a sonic screwdriver. There’s no way he’s gonna give you one,” Rose said, trying to keep a straight face. “Besides, he barely got this one to work.”

“Oi!” the Doctor protested, looking up at her. She smirked at him. He couldn’t help but smile back.

When he glanced back down, Pete was going through the contents of the safe. “Looks like everything’s here,” he said. He started to close the door when the Doctor stopped him.

“Wait!” he said. He reached down into the safe and pulled out a small blue boxlike object. “What’s this doing here?” he asked.

“What is it?” Rose asked, coming up behind them. “Wait a minute, isn’t that…”

“The battery the Doctor gave me that contains the Kern. I’m just waiting for a transport that can get it off planet.”

“How ya gonna do that?” Jackie asked.

Pete sighed. “Jacks, there are a number of aliens that come here on a fairly regular basis as tourists and to trade with us and there’s a smaller number that live here permanently. I should be able to send this off with one of the next ships that leave our solar system, but there isn’t one scheduled to depart for at least another couple of months.”

“We got aliens livin’ here on Earth?” Jackie asked in shock.

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

“Mum, you’ve got an alien living here right in your own house,” Rose reminded her.

“But that’s just the Doctor,” Jackie replied. “He doesn’t count.”

The Doctor wasn’t certain if he should be flattered or insulted. Given the comment came from Jackie, probably insulted he thought as he handed the battery back to Pete.

“So let me get this straight. You have a box with aliens in it in under my bed?” Jackie demanded of her husband. “When you said you were keepin’ alien stuff here, I thought you meant alien technology. I didn’t think you meant actual aliens. Why on Earth would you be keeping a, whatsit, a battery with aliens in it under our bed?”

“Well, I needed to keep it somewhere, Jacks!”

“Not in here, you didn’t!”

“I’ll put it in the safe downstairs, alright?” he said.

After a moment, Jackie nodded grudgingly, only slightly mollified at his suggestion. “When did you bring it here?” she asked.

“Right after the business with Rose,” he told her. “It should have been safe here. Obviously it wasn’t.”

Jackie stared at her husband in shock as the words _should have been safe here_ resonated in her mind.

“They were in my house,” she said in disbelief. “It just hit me. They were in my house. They went through my things. They were in our bedroom. All that time we lived in the Estate, and we never had anything like this happen.”

“I’m sorry, Jackie,” the Doctor said.

“And now everything’s filthy from where Torchwood tromped all over in here and dusted everything for fingerprints. I bet there isn’t a clean space in the house,” Jackie complained.

“We’ll get a cleaning service to come in tomorrow,” Rose said reassuringly. “They’ll put everything to rights.”

Pete crossed over to her and wrapped her in his arms. “It’ll be okay, Jacks,” he said softly.

“I mean, what if Tony had been here?” she continued numbly. “We live in a mansion and we’re no safer than we were at the Estate. Maybe even less.”

“It’s alright, Mum,” Rose said. “It’ll be alright. Why don’t we go down to the kitchen and have that tea we made.” She put her arm around her mother’s shoulders and led her out of the room.

“Jackie’s right,” Pete said angrily after the women had left. “Here we are, surrounded by security, and they still managed to get in here.”

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. “As troubling as that is, and it is troubling, the real question is what did they want? They don’t appear to have taken anything. Well, not that we’ve noticed yet at any rate. So what did they want?” He started pacing the room running his hands through his hair, a look of frustrated concentration on his face. “Okay, there are two main reasons for breaking into a place. One is to take something….” Suddenly he whirled on Rose’s stepdad. “The other is to leave something. But we haven’t seen anything. Pete, we need to search the house again, but this time to look for something they may have left.”

“Like what?” Pete asked.

“I dunno, could be a lot of things,” the Doctor answered. “But the most likely….”

Pete watched as he pulled out his sonic and swept the room. Evidently he didn’t find what he was looking for, because he walked out of the room and down the hall. Pete followed close behind.

“What are you looking for?”

The Doctor distractedly waved a hand at him and continued to examine the hallway and then the other rooms in turn, waving his sonic around slowly. Eventually he made his way downstairs.

“What’s going on?” Rose asked as she and Jackie came out of the kitchen. “I heard the sonic.”

The Doctor ignored her in favor of examining the readings on his sonic, so Pete answered.

“We were talking about what the intruder could have wanted if he didn’t take anything, and then he pulled out his sonic and started waving it around. He’s looking for something, but he hasn’t found it yet.”

“What’s he looking for?” Jackie wanted to know.

“I dunno,” Pete replied. “He didn’t say.”

After a few more moments examining the hallway, the Doctor shut off his sonic and turned to them.

“Shhh,” he said, putting a finger to his lips. He winked at Rose, who grinned back at him before putting a finger to her own lips.

The Doctor and Rose headed toward his study, Pete and Jackie following close behind, but before they could enter the room the Doctor stopped them.

“Wait here a tick,” he said.

Looking at Rose, the Doctor jerked his head at the door, and the two of them entered the study.

“Wha…”

“Fingers on lips,” he reminded her quietly, putting one to his again to demonstrate.

Rose rolled her eyes but complied.

The Doctor turned his sonic screwdriver back on and held it in front of him. It whirred, the light at the tip turned blue, and things began to squeal all over the room.

Pete rushed in. “What’s going on?” he demanded. Rose gestured to him to be silent.

With a flick of the Doctor’s thumb, the sonic whirred louder and the squeals turned into a series of popping sounds. After the popping stopped, they all watched as the Doctor wandered the room, looking under and around things.

“What…” Pete started, and the Doctor turned to him, a finger on his lips again. Once again he held up his sonic, and a number of other things began to squeal and pop. This time when the room quieted, the Doctor nodded. He shoved his screwdriver in his pocket and walked across the room, searching under and behind things for a moment before finally seeming to find what he was looking for behind a picture frame.

“What’s going on?” Pete asked.

The Doctor walked over to Pete, holding his hand flat in front of him. Pete’s eyes widened as he saw the Doctor was holding a tiny metallic disk in the palm of his hand.

“My study was bugged?”

The Doctor nodded. “Sound and visual. Tiny, _tiny_ things. Really impressive technology for 21st century Earth. Beautiful.” He pulled out his glasses with his free hand and put them on, then pulled the sonic back out of his pocket. He scanned the disk and examined the readings he got. “It wasn’t developed here. Far too advanced. Actually resembles Quevvil technology in some ways. Do you remember the Quevvils, Rose? Nasty creatures, resembled hedgehogs? Tried to get humans to fight their war with the Mantodeans with video games? Not that this is Quevvil technology, at least not from the time period that we ran into them. Much more advanced. But still….”

“Are you saying my study was bugged with alien technology?” Pete demanded.

“Well, yeah,” he responded. “Thought that was clear.” He squinted at the object in his hand and then looked at the readings on his sonic again. “Definitely alien,” he said, nodding.

“They had to have gotten it from Torchwood,” Pete said in shock, running his hands through the sparse hair on his head. “Someone at Torchwood planted bugs in my house.”

“Or someone who has access to Torchwood for some reason,” the Doctor added.

“How could they expect to get away with this? I’m the Director of Torchwood. Did they really think I wouldn’t find out?”

“You wouldn’t have,” the Doctor told him. “No way you could have. Or I should say, no way you should have. Not with this level of technology. Almost completely undetectable. Should have been completely impossible for you to find this. And you wouldn’t have found it if it weren’t for me. And even I wouldn’t have found it if it weren’t for my sonic.”

Pete tried to take that in. “So is this why we had an intruder? To bug my office?”

“There’s no real way to know how long these have been in here,” he said, gesturing at the tiny disk in his hand. “But it seems likely. It still doesn’t explain what they were doing upstairs, though.”

Jackie exploded. “Are you sayin’ someone’s put CCTV in our bedroom? I don’t want anyone seein’…”

“No, Jackie, please, no,” the Doctor interrupted, grimacing. “Don’t say another word.” The Doctor tried to erase the image that had sprung unbidden to mind.

“And there wasn’t any CCTV in our bedroom, Jacks,” Pete told her. “The Doctor already checked.”

“Well, thank heaven for that,” she said. “I really don’t want anyone watchin’….”

“No, please don’t,” the Doctor said again. “I _really_ don’t want the mental images. I might be traumatized for life.” While Jackie glared at him, he heard Rose snicker in the background.

“The person, or people, who did this…” Pete said, “Will they get suspicious when they don’t get signals from the mikes?”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” the Doctor answered. “We’re dealing with very sophisticated alien tech. Very delicate equipment. They’ll probably figure that it was installed incorrectly or didn’t work for some other reason.

“One other thing, Pete,” he continued. “We really should check your office at Torchwood. If they bugged here, they could have bugged there as well.”

Pete groaned loudly and then nodded. “What a mess,” he stated.

The Doctor and Rose agreed.

After removing all the alien cameras and listening devices from Pete’s study, the Doctor finished searching the rest of the house for surveillance equipment but didn’t find anything else. Meanwhile, Pete and Jackie settled in one of the guest bedrooms as their bedroom was still a mess. Later, the Doctor joined Rose in hers, not even trying to keep up the pretense of sleeping in his own room.

“How’s Jackie doing?” he asked her. They were lying in her bed together, his arms around her, her head resting on his shoulder.

“She’s really upset, although she’s trying to put a brave face to it,” she told him. “We called Mrs. McDonald, and she’s gonna keep Tony for an extra day.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” he said. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright,” she answered, snuggling closer to him. “I’m just glad you’re here.”

“Always, Rose Tyler,” he said, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “Always.”


	12. Chapter Eleven

He had just gotten home and changed for bed when he received the text. Just a time and an address. He glanced at the clock and groaned in frustration. It had been a particularly long evening, and he only had an hour to get dressed again and get to the meeting.

He had noticed early on that the other had a fascination for the cloak and dagger world of international intelligence, a taste he did not share. Having actually worked in a branch of that world himself, it no longer appeared glamorous to him. He knew that intelligence, like any other field, was made up of people who were often as concerned about what to have for tea while watching telly as they were with their jobs. But what they were doing was more than important; if they were successful it would change the course of human history. And he had to admit, at this stage of their plans there still was a pressing need for secrecy, and the other was in charge. His complaining about the time and place would not only do no good but could possibly create friction between himself and the other. And the last thing he wanted to do was to risk that.

His destination was in an unfamiliar part of town, this time on the edge of a council estate on the south side of the city. The address was in a seedier section of London than he had ever been in, filled with abandoned cars and broken street lamps, graffiti covered walls and vacant shops. Some of the buildings had evidence of gunfire and others were burned out, both of which were very visible reminders of the war with the Cybermen. Metal shutters and iron bars covered the windows and doors of the few businesses that remained.

To his annoyance, the streets were not well marked, and most of the buildings weren't numbered. What was worse, the GPS in his vehicle flatly refused to acknowledge the address even existed, its flat, artificial voice insisting to him to recheck his information. Finally after driving down the same stretch of street five times, he found what he was looking for. It was a building that housed, among other things, a Chinese takeaway, a hair salon and what looked like a particularly dodgy tattoo parlor.

He pulled up to the kerb, thankful that the area was deserted. He didn't know what he would have done if it hadn't been. There were few cars parked on the street, none of them the one he wanted, and he couldn't see a car park associated with the building. After parking and walking back and forth in the front of the building, he finally found a small sign next to a nondescript door.

Parking in rear of building.

Leaving his car where he had put it, he nervously walked through a narrow alley to the back of the building. The car park was almost empty, and he quickly spotted the dirty, brown sedan parked in the shadows next to the bins. This time when he entered the car the other spoke immediately, before he had even had a chance to close his door.

"Do you have it?"

He looked distastefully through the car windows at their surroundings. "You know we are taking a risk by meeting again so soon, and by meeting here."

The other shook off the warning impatiently.

"Yes, yes, I know, but do you have it?"

"Yes," he answered. He placed a padded envelope in the space between them. "The break-in was successful. The bugs were planted, it was retrieved and they'll never even notice it's missing."

"Do you know what is in this?" the other asked, picking up the envelope.

"I have an idea."

"Then if we are both right, you know just how important this is to the entire operation."

"Yes, I do."

The other let out a sigh of relief. "The contents of this envelope could change everything. Everything. What about the person who committed this little larceny?"

"Unfortunately he was seen," he answered. "He got away, but they were alerted to the break-in."

The other was silent for a minute. "Can he be identified?"

"We don't think so. But he is being dealt with." He grew quiet. "I had hoped there wouldn't be any more deaths," he said after a moment.

"Don't tell me you are going to be squeamish now. If he was seen, he could possibly have been traced back to us, even if you had used Ret-Con on him."

"I know," he said. "This business is just getting… unpleasant, and this one seems so unnecessary."

"You knew the risks. You know how vital it is that this not get traced back to us."

He nodded.

"And this is just the beginning," the other warned. "It's going to get more… unpleasant… before this is over. Are you up for this?"

"You know I am," he said. "I took care of this, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did. And you need to remember how important this all is, how vital. We need to continue, and you need to be totally committed to this."

"I am," he repeated. "I swear."

"Good. Then we no longer need anonymity between us," the other said. He turned to face him and dropped his hood. "The next phase will commence immediately. And I want you to keep an eye on Smith. He's entangled in all of this in a way I can't foresee. Smith could bring this entire operation down. We have to prevent that at all costs."

"Should we arrange another accident?"

"No," the other responded. "From what I understand, he's practically a member of Pete Tyler's family. Torchwood would investigate if he disappeared, and it could lead to us. For now, just watch him."

~oOo~

Due to the late night, it was almost noon by the time the Doctor and Rose woke up. When they finally stumbled down to the kitchen, Pete was sitting at the table drinking coffee while Jackie was supervising the cleaning crew.

The cleaning company had sent over a half a dozen employees to work on sweeping, dusting, vacuuming and otherwise scrubbing up the mess left by the Torchwood staff the previous night. All were dressed alike in jeans and matching white collared t-shirts with the company logo emblazoned in blue across the left breast pocket, and all had been required to show a photo ID before being allowed in the mansion.

As most of the cleaning crew left to work on other rooms, one young woman, barely out of her teens, stayed behind to finish up in the kitchen. She was trying to mop black scuff marks off the floor.

"Ya missed a spot," Jackie told her, pointing it out. "You got to get down on your hands and knees and scrub."

When she saw the Doctor and Rose enter the room she turned to them, much to the young woman's relief.

"It's about time you two got up," she said. "I was about to come and get you. Was tryin' to put that off as long as possible. Really didn't want to interrupt anything, if you know what I mean."

"Jacks," Pete complained, wincing in sympathy.

"Mum, please!" Rose protested vehemently, glaring at her mother.

"What?" Jackie asked.

The girl from the cleaning service, now on her hands and knees with a scrub brush, ducked her head down and tried to muffle a snicker.

Sighing heavily, the Doctor sat down at the table next to Pete, pinched the bridge of his nose, and calculated the time before they could leave for Cardiff down to the millisecond. Meanwhile, Rose poured two mugs of tea and joined them, pushing one of the mugs across the table to the Doctor. Without being asked, she immediately passed him the sugar and a tiny pitcher of milk she had retrieved from the refrigerator. She grinned as she saw him add more sugar to the cup than it ought to have been able to hold.

Pete cleared his throat and gave Jackie a meaningful look. She stared at him blankly until he nodded at the young woman still scrubbing the floor.

"Why don't you go out and help in the other rooms for a bit," Jackie said to her. The young woman looked at her curiously, and then looked at the others in the room, all of whom were staring at her. She shrugged, picked up her bucket and left, and then Jackie turned back to the others.

"Jacks, you too," Pete said with a jerk of his head towards the door. Jackie glared at him.

"Ooh, that's nice," she said sarcastically. "Anything you're talking about has to do with me, too, y'know."

"Not this time," Pete answered with a shake of his head. "We need to deal with Torchwood business."

Jackie narrowed her eyes and stared at her husband, who returned the gaze expressionlessly. After a moment, she nodded.

"Alright," she said grudgingly and left the room.

"What is it, Dad?" Rose asked as soon as the door had closed behind her mother. "Is it about the break-in?"

"Among other things." Pete looked from one of them to the other. "Doctor, you searched the house again after everyone left. Did you find anything?"

"Nothing you don't already know. It appears that the intruder limited himself to specific rooms in the house; the living room, my study and all three of our bedrooms. That would indicate that they, whoever they are, were looking for something specific, and were here for a while. Of course we did interrupt the intruder; it's possible, although unlikely, that the search just wasn't finished yet."

"Do either of you remember anything else about the person who broke in here last night? Anything at all?"

Rose shook her head while to her surprise the Doctor nodded.

"Yes. Well, no, not remembered exactly," he said, "but I think I've figured some things out. First of all, I believe our intruder was male. The height of the person I saw through your window, combined with the ratio between his height and his shoulders, typically would indicate a human male. Now this ratio is not universal among species, for example, the…." He stopped his lecture when Rose kicked his shin under the table. He glanced at her sharply, and she gave him a meaningful look that had _stay on topic_ written all over it.

"Anyway…" The Doctor drew out the word and rubbed his left eye. "That combined with a footprint I found outside last night would indicate someone who is at least six feet tall and probably about 175 pounds. There are some females that would fit that description, but as a proportion of the population…."

"There are 63,000,000 people in Great Britain, so that leaves about 32,000,000 males as possible suspects."

The Doctor shook his head. "Only 26 percent of the population is between the ages of 20 and 40, which is the most likely age of our intruder based on the experience level necessary to get in and out of here, as well as how quickly he was able to escape. Half of those are female, so now we are only talking about 13 percent of the population. Now you factor in the fact that in that age group 25% are over 6 ft. tall…."

Pete had pulled out a calculator and rapidly typed in numbers. "You're still talking over 2 million people."

"And now we need to factor in those who have the necessary skills to break into a place like this. That would indicate a professional of some type."

"A professional thief?" Rose asked.

"Or a professional agent," Pete answered. "Or someone else that might have the same type of skills. Police officers, military…."

"And don't forget the surveillance equipment came from Torchwood," the Doctor reminded them. "That would indicate that the person was either from Torchwood, or had a link to Torchwood in some way. Whoever did this could simply have been hired to do the job by someone in Torchwood."

"So we're still talking about a traitor in Torchwood," Pete said coldly.

"And this time it isn't Lisa Hallett," Rose said.

"What's the likelihood that there were two traitors in Torchwood and they weren't connected?" the Doctor asked rhetorically, and they all grew silent.

"Yeah, but who?" Rose asked finally, having wracked her brain to try to think of someone, anyone, who could not only be a traitor but also have a connection to Lisa.

Elbow on the table, Pete rubbed his forehead and frowned. "I suppose that means Hallett didn't escape on her own after all. It certainly would have been easier for her to do it if she had had an accomplice."

"Doctor," Rose said, turning to him, "Lisa had been taken over by one of the Kern. Does that mean her accomplice also has been?"

"I don't know." The Doctor grimaced and yanked on one ear. "I didn't think we had missed any, but there were two I wasn't certain we had accounted for. I thought they had died, but on further reflection maybe they hadn't. It also brings into question Hallett's memory loss. Maybe it wasn't as a result of being joined with the Kern."

"You're suggesting that she was Ret-conned," she said. "But Dr. Collins tested her for that and said she was clean."

"Hmm. There is that," he said. He pursed his lips. "What do we know about Frank Collins?"

"Good doctor, no family, not terribly ambitious, absolutely no reason to doubt his loyalty," Pete answered. "But speaking of Frank Collins, he just turned in his resignation today."

"What!" the Doctor and Rose said in unison.

Pete nodded, running one hand through his sparse, graying hair. "Effective as of this coming Friday."

"Well, that lets him out," Rose said. The Doctor and her stepfather looked at her curiously and she explained. "Well, if he were the traitor, wouldn't he want to stay if no one suspected him? What good would it do to leave? Once he was gone, he wouldn't have access to any more inside information or technology."

Pete nodded. "Well, his departure still leaves us with a problem. Where am I going to find a doctor to replace him? I need someone who is intelligent, loyal, brave, has a taste for adventure and wouldn't be frightened by the idea of aliens."

Rose turned to the Doctor and stared at him meaningfully. He looked at her and shook his head.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.

"No, absolutely not," he replied emphatically. "That is not a good idea at all."

Pete looked from Rose to the Doctor and back again. "You don't mean him, do you? I didn't think he had a medical background."

"I don't. Well, I do, in the sense that I know more about medicine than most medical professionals on this planet, weeell, all of them really…."

"But I didn't mean him," Rose interrupted. The Doctor turned back to face her.

"You have no idea what she went through when she was with me," he said.

"No, I don't, but _she_ didn't go through it," Rose said. "The other Martha did."

"You don't even know if she's anything like her parallel version," he argued.

"Doctor, you of all people should know that parallel people are essentially the same deep down. They aren't identical because of the different experiences they've been through, but they are incredibly similar."

"Just who are we talking about here?" Pete interjected.

"Martha Jones," they answered in one voice.

"Martha Jones?" Pete's brow furrowed. "You mean Jackie's doctor?"

"One and the same," Rose said. "The Doctor used to travel with the parallel Martha. And…" she turned to the Doctor, "according to you yourself, she was brave, intelligent, adventurous, basically all the things we need in a doctor for Torchwood."

Pete Tyler rubbed his jaw and looked from Rose to the Doctor and back again. The Doctor didn't look happy but didn't contradict her. And Pete knew the truth about what Rose was saying about parallel people from experience. He had known both Rickey and Mickey Smith, been married to two different versions of his wife, Jackie, and had heard stories about the parallel version of himself. Finally, he took a deep breath and let it out in a rush.

"Rose, you know her," he said. "I want you to contact her, sound her out, find out if she'd be interested in this… but don't mention Torchwood right away. I'm authorizing you to offer her the job, but only if you are absolutely certain about her."

"What about her security clearance?" Rose asked. "Shouldn't she be checked before we talk to her?"

"We've already investigated her background," her stepfather told her. "We needed to make sure she wasn't a security risk before Jackie started seeing her. So if she's interested and you feel comfortable with hiring her, go ahead and do it."

When the Doctor looked like he was going to object, Pete cut him off.

"Next topic," he said firmly before the Doctor could say anything. "With the inauguration coming up next week, there are likely to be a lot of changes in the country."

"Oh, I forgot about that," Rose said.

"What inauguration?" the Doctor asked.

"The inauguration of the new president of Great Britain," Pete told him. "A man by the name of Brian Greene. By himself, he's not particularly worrisome, but his campaign was funded in large part by an organization called the GBF."

"That stands for Great Britain First," Rose interjected.

"The GBF were first organized by a man named Ronald Nowak as a political action committee which promoted the idea of increased security and more centralized government in response to Lumic's Cybermen. They made a lot of inroads with a lot of people at that time. That was seven years ago. Since then they fell by the wayside as it soon became obvious they were just a bunch of nutters trying to take over the country."

"Dad came out against them when I first got here," Rose said. "He was the main reason that the group fell apart."

"Well, it evidently didn't last. About six months ago the group was reorganized by Nowak's second-in-command, Harrison Keeling, who stated that they had seen the error of their ways and were now trying to work within the system to make positive changes in people's lives. Since then they have been supporting the campaigns of politicians in key districts, all of whom have ended up being elected.

"Anyway, I spoke to Harriet Jones this morning. The push for more security across the country came from congressmen who all had been supported by the GBF. With Greene heading into office soon, we don't know what's going to happen, but it's not likely to be good."

Rose looked worried. "With all of this going on, do you need us to stay here?" she asked.

Pete shook his head and looked at her meaningfully. "Absolutely not. With everything happening, I need you in Cardiff. You both need to leave as soon as you can, right after this business with Martha Jones is resolved one way or another."

"Pete, with the break-in as well as the likelihood of another traitor in Torchwood, you're going to need us here, whether or not the Kern are involved," the Doctor said.

The other man shook his head vehemently. "No, I don't. Doctor, I appreciate your offer to help, but we got along for years before you were here. Now that Jake is here, he and I can handle an internal investigation as well as an investigation of the break-in."

The Doctor leaned back in his chair. "Pete, why do I get the impression there's more to this than what you're telling us?"

Pete tightened his jaw. "You're right," he admitted. "There is more to it. Jake just got back from America. Even the Americans are worried about what's happening over here. There are rumors of something coming, something big, but no one knows what."

He turned to his stepdaughter. "I need people I can trust leading the different branches of Torchwood. After this investigation, I'm going to be transferring Jake to head Torchwood Two in Glasgow. Meanwhile, I want you in Cardiff, but I don't want anyone to know you are there. You need to keep a low profile. Both of you," he said with a sideways glance at the Doctor. "I'm not even paying you through Torchwood. I'll be paying both your salaries directly. The Doctor was only going to be a consultant there anyway." He leaned back in his seat, in an effort to appear relaxed. "Who knows, this may all blow over and end up amounting to nothing. Just… don't mention any of this to your mother. With everything going on, her worrying about you is a complication I _don't_ need.

"One last thing," he added. "Where were the two of you planning on staying when you got to Cardiff?"

Rose and the Doctor exchanged glances. "We were planning on trying to buy a house out of town," the Doctor said. "Until then, a hotel I guess."

Pete shook his head. "Vitex has a fully furnished flat just off the bay and within walking distance of the Hub. You are welcome to use it as long as you need. Plus it will keep your names off of any hotel register."

"When did Vitex get a flat in Cardiff?" Rose asked suspiciously.

"What time is it?" Pete slowly grinned, the first time the Doctor and Rose had seen him smile since the Vitex party the night before.

"Dad," Rose protested.

"Don't argue," her stepfather returned. "It's only temporary, until you get a place of your own. It's a good investment and we could use a flat in Cardiff anyway. And when you decide to buy something, let me know. I'll set up a trust, so it'll be harder to track you through the title on the property. Same goes for a car. I don't want anything with your names on it associated with Cardiff. Now Rose, why don't you go and contact Dr. Jones?"

Rose pulled her mobile out of her pocket and stepped a few feet away from them to ring Martha. Meanwhile, the Doctor turned to Pete.

"While she does that, I need to ask for your help with something," he said.

"Anything," Pete answered, and the Doctor smiled wryly.

"That's probably a dangerous response where I'm concerned," he told him, chuckling, "but not in this case. when I came to this universe I brought some things with me, and I was wondering if you would help me sell some of them."


	13. Chapter Twelve

"You and I can go see Martha anytime," Rose told the Doctor as she slipped her mobile back into her pocket. "She says she's free all afternoon."

"Does that mean we're still going to Cardiff tomorrow?" the Doctor asked with a perhaps too hopeful tone to his voice.

"I certainly hope so," Rose said with a cheeky grin.

The Doctor slowly grinned at her, his tongue curled behind his top teeth. He waggled his eyebrows at her.

The expression on his face almost looked like a challenge, and not one she would pass up. She crossed the room, yanked on the lapels of his new blue suit and snogged him for all she was worth.

At the sound of someone clearing his throat, they broke apart.

"Still in the room," Pete reminded them, and they both had the grace to look sheepish.

"Oops," the Doctor whispered in Rose's ear.

"Sorry, Dad," she said.

Pete tried to look stern. "Yes, well, just don't let it happen again." He winked at them before he walked out the door.

The Doctor smirked at Rose.

"Now where were we?" he asked, pulling her back into his arms.

~oOo~

Martha Jones lived in a moderately priced neighborhood on the southwestern edge of London, a half an hour by car from the mansion and just minutes away from her medical office. Her flat, one of several that had been formed from subdividing an old home, was located on a quiet road lined with mature trees that shaded the entire neighborhood.

Rose considered herself lucky when she was able to find a place to park directly across from Martha's flat as most of the other places to park near the building had been taken. After she got out, she watched as the Doctor carefully unfolded himself from her tiny car.

"Don't say it," she said, pointing her finger at him.

"Say what?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know," she said. "How about how much you hate my car? How small it is and how you barely fit in it? How much I need a new one? Maybe how it really needs to be bigger on the inside?"

"Okay."

"Okay, what?" she asked.

He laughed. "Okay, I won't say it."

Martha Jones' flat was also not bigger on the inside. In fact, it was smaller than Jackie's old flat on the Powell Estate. It had no entry way. Instead, the door opened directly into a tiny sitting room which had barely enough room for a small sofa and a couple of chairs. Other than the front door, three doors led off from the main room. The door to the kitchen stood open, and that room appeared to be not much bigger than a cupboard. The other two led presumably to a bedroom and a bathroom.

"This is the same flat I had all the way through medical school," Martha said by way of apology after she had let them in. "I did my residency in a hospital near here and never bothered to move. And then Tom and I got engaged…."

Rose laughed. "It's actually bigger than the place I had in Cardiff."

"Really?" Martha asked in amazement. "I would have thought that with your father you would have had a deluxe flat, maybe even a penthouse."

"I wanted to do it on my own," Rose told her. "Now his last place, on the other hand," she jerked her head at the Doctor, "when you first looked at it, it looked tiny, but it was really pretty big. Actually really, really big."

The Doctor looked at her and grinned. "I guess you could say that. Almost seemed bigger on the inside."

Martha looked curiously at them, sensing a private joke.

"Can I get either of you anything?" she asked. "I've got pop, Vitex, orange juice…."

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, and Rose deliberately stepped on his foot. She had no idea what he was going to say, but she didn't trust it. The Doctor promptly shut his mouth with a puzzled look for Rose.

"Water would be fine. For both of us," she said with a pointed look at the Doctor.

"Oh, yes. Thank you," he said brightly.

Rose and Martha sat down, glasses of water in hand, with Rose on the sofa and Martha on a chair adjacent to her. While they gossiped about the party, the Doctor wandered about the room. It looked very similar to his own Martha's flat. Coffee table in front of the sofa. Small television in the corner. Framed photos scattered around. He picked one up to look at it more closely. The photo featured Martha's parents together, her father's arm around her mother. Evidently in this universe they had never divorced.

Finally the Doctor noticed that Rose was glaring at him, and he guessed he was being rude again. He sat down next to her and turned his attention to the conversation as Rose got to the point of the visit.

"Martha, are you happy in your practice?" she asked.

The other woman nodded. "Yes, I think so."

"Good." Rose stood, obviously signaling she was ready to leave. The Doctor, following her lead, started to get up himself.

"Wait!" Martha said. "Why do you ask? You didn't come all this way just to ask me whether I had fun at the party and whether or not I liked my job."

Rose and the Doctor glanced at each other, a small smile playing around Rose's mouth. They sat back down on the sofa.

"How do you _really_ feel about your job?" Rose asked.

"To tell the truth," Martha answered, "it's a bit boring. Colds, nonspecific aches and pains, check-ups, women wanting to lose weight, the same thing day after day. Not exactly what I imagined when I became a doctor. I've even been thinking of going back to school to specialize in something."

Rose smiled. "What if I could offer you a job that would be much more… challenging… than the one you currently have?"

"At Vitex?" Martha asked dubiously. "That's got to be even more boring than what I'm doing now. What do you get there, the occasional paper cut?"

"No," Rose said slowly and meaningfully, "not at Vitex. Somewhere else. Somewhere exciting and adventurous and where everything you've ever believed in is challenged."

Martha stared at her curiously.

"If you are interested," Rose continued with a quick glance at the Doctor. "We'd like to take you somewhere and show you around. No commitment, but if you come, you can't talk about anything you see tonight."

"Not even with Tom?" Martha asked.

Rose shook her head. "Not even with Tom. And you need to think carefully about this, because if you take this position, you still won't be able to talk to him about it, or at least not unless he passes a background check and receives a security clearance."

Martha stared thoughtfully from Rose to the Doctor and back. "What is this? Secret Service? International Security? Rose, I thought you did something for Vitex, were on the board or something."

"I'm not on the Vitex board. I do, well, other things with a different organization. And it's not the ISS or the Secret Service. In fact," she said evenly, "it might be safer if it were."

Martha's eyes widened, and she turned to the Doctor.

"John, are you a part of this, too?"

The Doctor and Rose exchanged a quick glance.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, Martha, actually I am."

"Martha," Rose said, "our organization is in need of a doctor, a chief medical officer actually, and I think you would be perfect for the job. Are you interested?"

Martha Jones looked thoughtfully from Rose to the Doctor and back again.

"Yes," she said eventually.

Rose smiled. "Then come with us."

~oOo~

"Oh my God, this place is incredible," Martha said as she stared in amazement around her.

Rose had decided that showing Martha the enormous storage bay would be the best way of introducing her to Torchwood. The solar particle scoop they were standing next to towered several stories high above their heads. Behind them was the cockpit and part of one wing of what the Doctor had confirmed was a portion of a Socarthy shuttlecraft, and in front of them was a Cyberman constructed transport vehicle. Other pieces of alien tech of all shapes and sizes lay scattered haphazardly on various shelves and workbenches throughout the room.

"And you said that all of this is alien?" she asked, gesturing around her.

"Yes," Rose answered. "Other than the stuff built by the Cybermen."

"Y'know, I didn't really believe in aliens," Martha said. "Not sure if I still do."

The Doctor's split into a wide grin. "Good for you, Martha Jones! Never take things simply on faith. Investigate the world around you, analyze the data and then draw a conclusion."

Rose glanced at him and grinned. If she had had any doubts about his identity before, which she didn't, that comment alone would have probably convinced her he was the Doctor.

"And you both work here?" Martha asked.

"Well, I have for a while," Rose answered. As she spoke, she led the way through a set of heavy double doors and down a long hall. "The Doctor, though, is more of a… consultant."

"The Doctor?" Martha turned to face the person she only knew as Rose's boyfriend. "Are you a doctor as well?" she asked.

"No," he responded and then immediately corrected himself. "Well, yes, actually I am, but not in the sense you mean." He grimaced and yanked on one ear. "I'm not just a doctor, I'm the Doctor."

"I don't understand."

Neither the Doctor nor Rose responded as they continued to walk down the hall. After passing through another set of double doors, Rose led the way around another corner and through a door labeled simply 'Medical'. The room they were in was a waiting room of sorts, with chairs lining the wall and doors leading to other rooms. Once inside, she peeked through the doors to see if there was anyone else there. As soon as she was satisfied they were completely alone, she turned to Martha.

"I know I told you his name is John Smith, but that's really not true. He's the Doctor. Just… the Doctor."

"You're putting me on. That's not a name. It's a title." She turned and stared at him. "That's what you're called. 'The Doctor.'"

"Yep." The Doctor shrugged almost apologetically.

"Through here," Rose said, changing the subject. She pushed open the door on the far end of the room and gestured for Martha to enter.

Once inside, Martha's jaw dropped. The room was huge, with a long lab bench in the center of the room and two walls covered with high tech medical equipment. She recognized some of it as being for blood work and DNA analysis, but she had no idea what many of the other items were for.

"This would be your lab," Rose told her. She walked around the room gesturing at doors. "Through there is an examination room, that one is autopsy, and your office would be up front, off the waiting room. You'd have a staff of five: an intern, a nurse practitioner, and three lab technicians. You'd be ultimately responsible for everything medical that goes on here as well as some exams and of course all autopsies."

"But I'm not a medical examiner," Martha protested.

"We know that, but doing autopsies here is more… on the job training."

"So medical work, lab work, supervising staff, and… alien autopsies?" she asked in disbelief.

"Pretty much." Rose nodded. "You'd also coordinate medical services with Torchwood Two and Three. Believe me, you'd never be bored."

Martha shook her head. "Spaceships, aliens… this is like some sort of elaborate joke for a television show. I almost expect you to say 'You're on Candid Camera' or something."

"You watch too much television, too," the Doctor said in amusement.

Rose turned to him. "Was the other one this difficult to convince?"

"Weell," he said, dragging out the word and grimacing. "A little. Of course, back then I could convince her with the two hearts and the TARDIS. Plus there was the little matter of the Judoon on the moon…." He grinned at her. "I like saying that. Judoon on the moon."

Martha looked puzzled while Rose sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Don't mind him," she said apologetically. She turned back to the Doctor. "So what do you think?" she asked, trying to get him back on track.

The Doctor looked resigned. "As long as we destroy all the evidence afterwards."

"What are you two talking about?" Martha demanded.

Rose turned back to her and took a deep breath. "What if I could show you proof, incontrovertible proof, that aliens exist? Something that could prove it to you beyond a shadow of a doubt and could absolutely not be faked."

Martha scoffed. "Anything can be faked."

"Not this," the Doctor told her. "A simple mouth swab should suffice, and you can run the test yourself."

"What?" She looked from the Doctor to Rose and back again. And then stared at him wide-eyed. "But the only way to do that…. And I know that you…." She pointed to Rose. "But that would mean that you…." she said, turning towards the Doctor. "No way."

"So, Martha Jones," he said with a rueful grin. "Are you ready to have your universe expand?"

~oOo~

While Martha ran the DNA test on his mouth swab, the Doctor went to Pete Tyler's Torchwood office.

The door of course was locked, but a locked door had never stopped him before. At least not while he had his sonic screwdriver. Unless it was dead-lock sealed. Or wood, he reminded himself. He still hadn't fixed that flaw in his sonic. Maybe with more programming.

The lock was neither dead-lock sealed nor wood, so he made short work of it. After entering, he looked around the small office. It was jam-packed with maps, charts, technical guides and engineering journals. There were also a couple dozen binders on one shelf. He pulled one off at random and flipped through it. It was filled with intelligence on the aliens that had already visited this version of Earth. He grinned as he found most of the so-called 'intelligence' was incredibly full of errors, and he made a mental note to himself to mention something about it to Pete.

After a few more minutes of flipping through binders at random and chuckling at their inaccuracies, he got down to business and scanned the room with his sonic. Nothing. Not a squeal, not a blip, not a beep. If the room was bugged, it wasn't with the same technology as at the mansion.

He tried a dozen other settings. Nothing. No evidence whatsoever of covert surveillance. _Well, at least that's good news,_ he thought.

Later, after the Doctor had returned to the medical lab, he watched with amusement as Dr. Martha Jones stared at the medical results in front of her.

"I can't believe it," she said. "I did the swab myself, and I ran the test myself." She raised her head and stared at the Doctor. "You're not human."

"Weell," he said, drawing out the word and yanking on one ear, "I actually am part human, part something else." He took the test results from her as well as all of the DNA samples she had taken. "I need these. It is essential that no one else find out about this." After shoving everything into one of the pockets of his jacket, he walked over to the DNA testing equipment and sonicked it, wiping out its recent memory.

"So are you interested?" Rose asked her.

Martha grinned. "Hell, yes!"


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Late the next morning they loaded up Rose’s Mini Cooper with what they’d need for the next few weeks in Cardiff. Even though neither Rose nor the Doctor owned many possessions, the car would hold only a tiny fraction of their belongings. The only things they decided were necessary to bring were some suitcases, a box of Rose’s photos, and the tank holding the Doctor’s small branch of TARDIS coral. Jackie was going to make arrangements to send some of their boxes to the flat Pete had bought as an investment for Vitex and the rest to them when they found a permanent place to live. Rose wasn’t even bringing her tablet computer, since she insisted that the Doctor had broken it and it needed to be replaced anyway.

They had intended to leave the mansion without a lot of fanfare, but as was usual with their plans, reality didn’t work out that way. 

Pete had picked up Tony at Mrs. McDonald’s home earlier that morning, and since they had gotten back the little boy had been constant motion, running back and forth between the house and Rose’s car, insisting at the top of his lungs that he could help carry the luggage. As he followed the Doctor into the house for the third time, Rose decided to take advantage of the lull in the chaos to talk to her mother alone. Looping her arm through her mother's, she led her into the garden, to a bench placed near a bed of Japanese irises. It was far enough away from the garage to be private, but close enough to be able to monitor Tony when he came back outside.

“How are you doin’, Mum?” she asked as they walked. “With the break-in, are you sure you don’t want us to stay an extra couple of days?”

“I’m fine, sweetheart,” Jackie answered. “Don’t you worry about me. What about you? Have you got everything? Do you have your mobile? Do you have money for the toll? Oh! Do you have enough clothes? Cos I know you still had some of your knickers in the wash.” 

“Mum, I’ve got everything I need,” Rose assured her. As they sat down, she saw the Doctor exit the house with Tony tagging along on his heels. The Doctor had taken off his jacket and was carrying the tank that contained the TARDIS coral. His snug, dark blue tee accentuated his build, and she grinned as she admired the view. 

She turned back to her mother before continuing. “And if I’ve forgotten something, Cardiff has a Tesco’s just like everywhere else. We’ll just buy it or have you send it to us with the rest of the stuff you’re shipping.”

“I know,” Jackie said. “I just worry about you.”

“I know you do, but I’ll be fine, Mum,” Rose told her. “And I won’t be that far away. The Doctor and I are just moving to Wales. ‘S not like we’re moving to… Mars or something.” 

“I know,” she replied. “But ever since that first time you went off with him, I get worried.” Jackie pursed her lips. “I know you love him, and it’s obvious he adores you. He always has, even your first him. But Rose, are you really sure that you two are ready for this, seein’ that you both have only been back together for a couple of weeks?” 

Rose bit her tongue as she thought of the irony of that statement. Tony had been born less than a year after they had arrived in the parallel world. She would have thought her mum hypocritical if she didn’t know that her mother just wanted the best for her.

“Mum, I think I’ve been ready ever since I met him,” she said softly. She looked over at him and smiled. He was attempting to place the tank in the back seat of the car, which was a more difficult task than it would be normally due to Tony’s help. As if he knew she was looking at him, he turned around and grinned at her before he returned to what he was doing. “We’ve been apart for so long I don’t want to wait another second.”

“I understand, sweetheart,” Jackie said. “When I met Pete, this Pete, I didn’t want to waste a second either. It was a second chance for both of us." She paused for a moment. "You know I just want the two of you to be happy.”

“I know you do, Mum. And we are.” 

Back at the car, Pete cornered the Doctor just as he finished stowing the coral and the last of the luggage.

“When you’re in Cardiff,” he said, “if you or Rose need anything, anything at all, you just call me.” 

“Thank you, Pete,” the Doctor said. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. But with the break-in, are you certain you don’t want us to stay for a bit longer? I’m sure that Gwen would be able to handle running Torchwood Three for a few extra days.”

Pete smiled. “Rose asked me that very same question last night, and I’ll tell you what I told her: Jake and I can handle it. You just worry about getting set up in Cardiff.”

~oOo~

After hugs all around, a promise to Tony that he could visit after they found a house, and what was to the Doctor an extremely unnecessary, and disgustingly wet, kiss from Jackie, they climbed in the car and headed off. Rose was behind the wheel again, not because it was her car, not because he couldn’t drive, but because he was so tall that he didn’t quite fit in the driver’s seat, at least not well enough for a three hour drive. It reminded her that they’d eventually have to get an additional car just for him, or at least sell hers and buy a bigger one. _High class problem_ , she told herself. After all, she had bought this one never expecting that he’d be in this universe with her and ever even see it, let alone drive it.

The last time they had traveled to Cardiff, which had been only two weeks earlier, they had spent the time catching up, telling each other stories of their experiences while they had been apart. But this time, after a couple of awkward attempts at conversation, an unnatural silence descended between them.

It wasn’t as if they hadn’t traveled together before. Most of the time they had been together they had traveled. But this time they both knew that they weren’t just starting on a new journey. They weren’t just traveling; they were moving. By moving to Cardiff together, they were taking a new step in their relationship. A big step. A step that involved all those things the Doctor had disdained for years: real jobs, houses with carpets and doors and curtains, a permanent address in a fixed location. Domestics.

And they knew they would be taking another big step in their relationship, a step they had been dancing around for years, a step that had almost happened impulsively a number of times. But this time, taking this step would be deliberate. They would be knowingly and intentionally crossing a line between them that once crossed, they couldn’t go back from.

Living together in the TARDIS had been very different than them living together in a house or a flat would be.

Things were getting very real, very quickly, the closer they approached Cardiff.

Finally, having driven in silence for over an hour, Rose glanced at him. He was staring out the window, restlessly tapping his fingers on the edge of the door. He had never done well with inactivity, she reminded herself. He was probably bored. But he didn’t really look bored to her. He looked uncomfortable, maybe even edgy.

“Doctor, are you okay with this?” she asked. “I mean really, really okay.”

He turned to face her. “Okay with what?” 

At the last minute she chickened out, and she didn’t ask what she really wanted to ask.

“You know,” she said lightly. “Carpets. Curtains. Jobs. A place to live that isn’t bigger on the inside.”

He swallowed nervously as he considered how to answer her. The truth was, it was nerve-wracking. Although he usually thrived on new experiences, this one was different. He had joked about being terrified of living in a house while they were on Krop Tor, but there had been more than a little truth to his comments. And if he couldn’t get the TARDIS coral to grow, living in an actual house with carpets might very well be permanent.

But he knew what she was really asking, and that it had nothing to do with carpets.

And at the last second he chickened out as well.

“Carpets really aren’t so bad,” he said. “And there are always hardwood floors.” _Coward_ , he told himself. “And linoleum. And tile! Tile is very good. Did you know that some of the best tile in the universe was actually produced on the Lost Moon of Poosh? Colorful, hard wearing…. Real loss to the universe when Poosh disappeared. On the other hand, now that it’s back, tile lovers everywhere will be able to enjoy the benefits of a really long-lasting tile floor.”

The Doctor continued in that vein for a bit, branching into the benefits of stonework over frame construction, the price of marble on Barcelona (the planet not the city), and the health benefits of apple grass over ordinary turf for gardens, among other things. Rather than irritating her, Rose found his rambling comforting. It had broken the awkward silence, and it was so him. So normal between them. She began to relax, feeling encouraged that things would work out.

~oOo~

The flat Pete had purchased was on the top floor of a tall steel and glass building only a couple of blocks from the bay, on the other side of Mermaid Quay from the Hub. Both succumbing to nervousness again, they made their way silently through the lobby and up the lift, Rose carrying a couple of suitcases, the Doctor carrying the tank holding the TARDIS coral in his arms. The flat was only one of two on their floor and was at the end of a long hallway. After setting the luggage on the floor, Rose reached into her jeans pocket to pull out the key that they had picked up from the estate agent when they had arrived. Because it was Sunday, they had picked it up at her home rather than her office. While there, the agent had assured them that everything was ready for their arrival. Pete had made arrangements for it to be fully furnished and she herself had stocked the kitchen with groceries just that morning.

Rose unlocked the door, feeling that the whole situation was a bit surreal. Three weeks ago, she was still using the dimension cannon to locate the Doctor. Two weeks ago, she had traveled to Cardiff so that Owen Harper could help him determine the details of his part human physiology, not believing that the man she was with was the Doctor. Just over a week ago, he had finally convinced her beyond a shadow of a doubt of his identity.

And now they were moving into a flat. Together. 

Had anyone tried to convince her a month ago that she’d be moving into a flat with the Doctor in the parallel Cardiff of Pete’s World just a month later, she would have strongly recommended the person seek psychiatric help.

She gestured towards the door after it had swung open. “You first. After all, you’re carrying the baby,” she joked, trying for levity to counteract the oddness of the situation.

He grinned at her and carried the tank through the door. She picked up the luggage and followed.

And stopped in the doorway.

The estate agent had told them that the flat had an open floor plan, with the kitchen, dining and living areas being a part of a single great room, and that it had a beautiful view, but that description didn’t do the place justice.

A long leather sofa, flanked by matching reclining chairs, was at one end of the room and faced a large plasma screen television. A gourmet kitchen sat on the other side of the room. It had an island which served as a work station and eating area as well as to separate the kitchen from the rest of the room. Flower arrangements had been placed on the black enameled table in the dining area and on the low coffee table in front of the sofa. But Rose hardly noticed any of it. Instead all she could see were the floor to ceiling windows on the far wall which had a breathtaking view of Mermaid Quay and the bay.

“Wow. This is gorgeous,” she said, awestruck.

“A far cry from the Powell Estate, eh?” the Doctor said while putting the glass tank on the shiny granite countertop of the kitchen island.

“Oh, yeah.” She looked around in amazement as she entered the flat. “I think Mum’s whole flat would have fit in just this room alone.”

“Not quite, but close to,” he responded. “After the mansion, I would have thought you’d be used to living in places like this.”

Rose shook her head. “Don’t think I’d ever get used to something like this.”

While the Doctor checked the coral for any possible damage that could have been caused by transporting it, Rose wandered the flat, gently touching things and seeing where things were. The estate agent had told them that the flat was a two bedroom, and Rose discovered that one of the bedrooms had been set up as an office with a sofa in it that converted into a bed. Peeking into the second, she saw a king sized bed with a blue and burgundy duvet and matching throw pillows. Their room, and their bed. She bit her lip and grinned, looking forward to the evening and all its possibilities.

~oOo~

They decided to have dinner at one of the restaurants in the area. Afterwards, they slowly walked along the path that hugged the edge of the bay, holding hands with fingers entwined, enjoying the balmy evening and each other’s company.

They returned to the flat as night began to fall. Rose laughed as the Doctor immediately sat down on the sofa and put his feet on the coffee table without taking off his trainers.

“I’m just gonna get changed, yeah?” she said to him, and he nodded.

Earlier, when she had put their personal items in the en suite, she had marveled at the room. Marble countertops, gold fixtures, a huge whirlpool bathtub and a large freestanding shower with multiple showerheads. The only bathroom she had ever seen that was nicer had been in the TARDIS. 

Originally planning on taking a quick shower, she changed her mind and decided to indulge in a bath. After a long soak, she stepped out the tub and dried herself off, using one of the thick towels that had been in the room when they had arrived. Then she opened the bag she had left on the counter earlier. Inside was the nightie she had purchased specifically for this night. 

She pulled it over her head and surveyed herself in the mirror. It wasn’t much more than a slip. Made of gold colored silk with an interwoven pattern in deep red, it had spaghetti straps and essentially no back, a plunging neckline and barely fell to mid-thigh. Somehow it managed to be both sophisticated and incredibly sexy without being slutty. Or at least she hoped that was the case.

Taking out the pins that had held up her hair while she was in the bath, she brushed her hair out and fluffed it up a bit. Biting her lip anxiously, she considered both makeup and perfume, eventually deciding on neither. Overcoming a wave of nervousness, she opened the bathroom door.

To her surprise, the Doctor wasn’t in the bedroom. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, perhaps for him to be waiting for her in bed or something, but it wasn’t as if they had talked about it. As she slowly folded down the duvet, she had a pang of doubt and returned in her mind to the conversation she’d had with her mother earlier. Were they really ready for this? 

Well, ready or not, here they were. In Cardiff. In a flat. Living together. And hiding in the bedroom wasn’t going to change that. She crossed to the doorway and paused. He was still seated on the sofa and was bent over, glasses on, working on something. It was such a familiar sight. How often had she seen him or his previous selves working on some project or another? For a split second she saw shorn hair, strong features and piercing blue eyes concentrating on repairing the TARDIS, and then brown pinstripes and crazy hair polishing the console. And now it was blue pinstripes, dark, spiky hair, and chocolate brown eyes behind dark framed glasses. And she felt an overwhelming wave of love for him. Every him, and particularly this him who had promised to stay with her for her forever. And then nothing felt so right than them being together. In every way. Her heart began to pound and a sense of warmth began to spread to her belly and lower in anticipation.

From his position on the sofa, the Doctor heard her come in but didn't look up.

“Doctor,” she called softly as she crossed the room to stand next to him. “What are you doing?”

“Just programming my sonic, Rose,” he said. “This one doesn’t have nearly the number of settings the old one had.” 

Tucking the nightgown under her first, she sat next to him on the sofa. 

“Maybe you could do that later, yeah?” she suggested quietly. She put her hand over his and gently took the screwdriver from him, placing it on the low table in front of them. He still didn’t look at her, and in a rush she realized he was as nervous as she had been.

“Doctor? Are you alright?” she asked.

He didn’t respond immediately, and when he did he didn’t look at her.

“Rose, it’s just, _this_ …” he said, waving a hand between the two of them, “isn’t something I’ve done for a very long time. And, well… once we do _this_ , there’s no going back, not for me.”

“There’s no going back for me, either.” She paused for a moment. “This is what you want, isn’t it?”

The Doctor closed his eyes. “Oh, yes,” he breathed. _You have no idea how much_ , he added silently. “But you need to know something else as well. This has never been a major part of my life. In fact, I’ve had entire lives where it wasn’t _any_ part of my life. I haven’t done this in a very, very long time and never with someone who I….” He took a deep breath. “Never with someone who I loved like I love you.”

“I guess we’re even, then,” she said softly, taking his hand in hers. “Because I haven’t done this in a very long time myself, and never with someone who I loved like I love you either.” She was quiet for a moment before continuing. “Doctor. Please. Open your eyes.”

He opened them and turned to look at her. “Oh, Rose,” he said softly, whispering her name as if it were a prayer, “you are so, so beautiful.”

With a gentle smile for him, she stood up and pulled him to his feet.

Threading one hand in her hair, he slowly leaned forward and softly, softly kissed her. With the other hand he reached up and stroked her hair, her cheek, her neck. He lost himself in that kiss and with it he tried to communicate to her everything she meant to him but had trouble saying.

And as they kissed she reached up and took his hand. And slowly moved it to her breast.

He froze. He knew they stood on a precipice. Retreat to familiarity and safety, or fall forward into the unknown. In that instant time stopped, as if the entire universe held its breath, waiting for his choice.

Time snapped back into place as something snapped inside of him. He had spent years denying his feelings for her, denying them _this_ , and still their separation had nearly destroyed him. But their separation was over. And the time for denial was past. 

Pulling her roughly into his arms, he compelled her mouth to open beneath his, letting him explore the inner recesses with his tongue, and for a moment, he was overwhelmed by the taste of her and the feel of her lips and tongue on his. 

They had kissed passionately before, but this was different. This was more than passion, more than desire. This was intent. 

He moved from her mouth to her jaw. She dropped her head back and he continued, following a path down her throat. He heard her moan in response and the sound shot through him with a tidal wave of desire. 

“Oh, Rose Tyler, you have no idea…” he growled against her skin, his mouth never leaving her neck. And then he swept her off her feet, carried her into the bedroom, and placed her gently on the bed.

“Doctor,” she whispered, holding her arms up to him.

After he shrugged off his jacket and toed off his trainers, he joined her on the bed and she wrapped her arms around him. Suddenly he found himself on his back with her straddling him. She smiled at him mischievously, tongue between her teeth, before she bent down and captured his lips with her own. When she finally broke away to breathe, he grabbed her shoulders and reversed their positions, with him now straddling her thighs just above her knees. She let out a cry of surprise and then giggled. He smirked at her.

“Turnabout’s fair play, Rose Tyler,” he said, drawing her name out slowly. He bent down and kissed her again.

Quickly the playfulness turned into something else. The urgency to kiss her, caress her, was almost overpowering. His hand moved to the hem of her nightgown and then moved upward, along the outside of her thigh to the curve of her bottom. And stopped.

“Miss Tyler,” he said in a low voice full of amusement, “you aren’t wearing any knickers.”

“Was hopin’ I wasn’t gonna need them,” Rose said with a cheeky grin. “And I believe you are overdressed.” 

Returning her grin, he backed up to pull off his shirt, and she sat up to unbutton his trousers. While she unzipped him, she intentionally brushed her fingers against him. His grin faded and he involuntarily thrust his hips forward, seeking more. Pleased with his response, she slipped her hand into his trousers and tentatively cupped him through his pants, eliciting a groan.

He quickly shrugged out of the rest of his clothes, probably faster than he ever had in any life, and tossed them over the side of the bed where they landed in a lump on the floor. When he turned back to her, she was beginning to pull off her nighty.

“Please,” he said, reaching for the hem. “Let me. Please.”

She lifted her arms and he pulled it off slowly, revealing her body inch by inch. Once it was off, she lay back down in front of him. His heart thumped wildly out of control, and he reminded himself that since he was now part human he needed to remember to breathe. For a moment he knelt next to her and stared at her in silence and wonder, at her warm brown eyes and soft curves, at her dusky nipples, the creamy perfection of her skin and the dark curls at the apex of her thighs. Her blonde hair was spread out across the pillow, framing her face which was now flushed with arousal. _Pink and yellow_ , a tiny memory whispered in the back of his mind. He had called her that once, even though at the time he had had no idea how apt the description was. But it fell far short of the reality of her. She was exquisite. Utter perfection. 

“Rose, I would tell you that you are beautiful, but those words seem _so_ inadequate right now.”

As he moved to lie down, he realized with a start that he was still holding the small strip of silk she had been wearing and had been tightly twisting it in his hands. He forced himself to drop it, and it landed on top of the pile of his clothes on the floor. After he lay back down next to her, she rolled on her side to face him.

As bold as he had been before, now he was tentative, lightly tracing the length of her arm with his fingertips. While he caressed her, she placed one hand on his chest, running her fingers through his light smattering of hair, and he shivered in response. Slowly she moved her hand up to his face, from his chin along his jaw to his sideburn and not stopping until it was buried deep in his hair. 

It was too much, it was just too much, lying naked next to her, chest to chest, hips to hips, skin touching skin, her warmth and her scent surrounding him, her fingers caressing his scalp and the back of his neck. The Doctor felt his control slipping further and further, rapidly disappearing in wave after wave of desire. He placed one hand under her head to thread his fingers in her hair and moved the other to her breast, gently cupping and squeezing it before he moved lower to grasp the curve of her bum and pull her more tightly to himself. He wanted… oh, he wanted to touch her there and there and there, the nape of her neck, the curve of her breasts, the softness of her folds, everything all at once, but mostly he just… wanted. Wanted her. Wanted her desperately. He closed his eyes for a moment due to the sensory overload.

Leaning forward, the Doctor kissed her throat and then ran the tip of his tongue down her neck, tracing a line along her collarbone to her shoulder. Rose mimicked him in reverse, touching her tongue to his shoulder, bringing it up to the strong, corded muscles that joined at his neck. She kissed him there, openmouthed, tracing the spot with her teeth, and he fought off a growl that threatened to escape from deep in his chest.

Rolling onto her back, Rose pulled him down with her. He slipped between her thighs and closed his eyes at the feel of her hands running down his back. She roughly cupped his arse, pulling him towards her and grinding against him, and he groaned again. He hadn’t thought his desire for her could increase, but when he felt the warmth, the moisture of her sex against his hardness, he discovered he was wrong. 

“I’m sorry,” he murmured against her neck. “I wanted to make this slower, but I don’t think I can wait anymore.”

“God, whatever you do, don’t slow down!” Rose said with such vehemence that he chuckled.

Taking himself in hand, he moved into position and slowly, slowly entered her, trying to allow her body time to adjust to his, and desperately fighting instincts he hadn’t even realized he had to take her as hard and as fast as possible. Her heat, her tightness felt so, so good, beyond anything he had ever dreamed it could. It was a pleasure almost painful in its intensity. 

The Doctor slowly rocked forward, moving deeper and deeper inside of her. It had been a very long time for her, since before they had begun traveling a decade earlier. She felt filled, almost uncomfortably stretched to capacity, but at the same time she had wanted this, wanted him, for so long that the discomfort quickly gave way to need. Her eyes closed as she quietly moaned.

“Rose, please,” he pleaded, his voice strained, “please, look in my eyes. I want to see what you are feeling. I want you to see….”

His voice trailed off. She opened her eyes again and nodded breathlessly, understanding what he couldn’t put into words. 

After he had moved as deeply as he could, he paused a moment and Rose shifted beneath him, trying to get a little more comfortable. He hissed, noisily sucking air through his teeth.

“Blimey, Rose,” he said breathlessly. “Give me a tick. I don’t want this to be over before it even starts.” He laughed ruefully, and she smiled.

His expression changed and she saw him gazing at her, his dark brown eyes filled with passion. It was a look that she had never seen, never truly expected to see, and had only dreamed about for all her adult life. He was so… beautiful. Yes, he was handsome and sexy, but somehow for her he was the definition of male… beauty. She lifted a hand to caress his face.

“I love you so much,” she whispered. 

And with that, the last remaining sliver of his control vanished.

“Oh, Rose.” Kissing her with a bruising intensity and unable to hold himself back any longer, he thrust into her quickly, deeply, repeatedly. Gasping, she clutched at him almost in desperation, trying to bring him closer, deeper. She wrapped her legs around his waist and moved to meet him stroke for stroke.

The first time was hard and fast and desperate, and filled with urgency and the sense that they had waited far, far too long for this. She cried out in release and he quickly followed, with the musical words of his native language on his lips. Afterwards, even before the effects of their lovemaking had entirely left their bodies, they stared at one another, panting, and were overcome by the magnitude of what had finally happened between them. Rose moved her hands to run her fingers through his hair and lifted her head to his in a quick kiss.

“I love you,” she said, crying as she had on that long ago beach, but the tears were tears of joy this time.

And as he wiped the tears from her face, he swallowed thickly and sniffed.

And then laughed, as he was happier than he ever remembered being, and she joined him.

He rolled onto his side and carried her with him, still chest to chest, arms wrapped around each other and legs still entangled.

“Oh, Rose Tyler,” he whispered, his eyes glistening, “Five billion languages, and there are no words… no words to express…. ”

The Doctor had always been good with words, even when she had first met him, and when he had regenerated words almost seemed to flow out of his mouth unbidden most of the time. After the metacrisis he was really no different. She was always surprised when words failed him.

“Why don’t you show me then, yeah?” she suggested quietly.

“I think I just did,” he said with a little bit of a laugh and a grin.

“No,” she responded in a more serious tone, taking one of his hands and placing his fingertips on her temple, “why don’t you show me?”

His breath caught as he stared at her wide-eyed, overcome by her offer.

“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice both concerned and hopeful. He knew that she had initially objected to the TARDIS in her mind, and after Cassandra had possessed her on New Earth, he had never wanted her to feel as though he was putting her in a similar situation. He had had to contact her telepathically twice, but he had never shared anything with her mentally. “Are you really certain you want me to show you?”

She nodded, and he felt tears of happiness spring to his eyes again. Closing his eyes and leaning forward, he gently rested his forehead on hers. As he felt her consciousness just begin to touch his, he felt the all too overwhelming silence lessen as it always did when he had telepathic contact with someone else. But this was Rose Tyler, and the joy he felt in touching her mentally was almost overwhelming.

He had no intention of truly entering her mind, instead just wanting to brush the surface and show her part of his. But then he heard her invitation, both aloud and internally.

“It’s okay. I promise. It’s okay.”

And after a warning to her about privacy and closing doors on anything she didn’t want him to see, with a quiet sigh of pleasure he joined with her telepathically.

Rose had never done anything like this before, deliberately permitting someone into her mind, so she wasn’t quite certain what to expect. And then she felt the Doctor’s mind touch hers. And she realized why this was so important to him. It was the most intimate experience she had ever had, feeling she was not just hearing his thoughts but touching his soul. And she opened herself to allow him to enter her mind more deeply.

Time seemed to slow around them. Suddenly she could feel the spin of the Earth on its axis, the motion of the stars and the planets overhead, millennia passing and no time passing at all. And in that moment, she felt his love for her. It surrounded her, cocooned her, penetrated her to every atom of her existence. She felt completely known as no one had ever known her before, and in the same instant completely, utterly cherished. She was so humbled by the experience it brought fresh tears to her eyes.

When he eventually pulled his head away from hers and withdrew from her mind, Rose almost sobbed at the loss. She wasn’t able to tell whether the experience had taken a minute, or an hour, or a lifetime, but however long it was, it didn’t seem long enough. He gazed at her, an unreadable expression on his face, and then bent forward to kiss her slowly, leisurely. And she closed her eyes and responded.

Later, they made love again.

The first time having taken the edge off their hunger for each other, the second was slower but no less passionate.

They took the time to explore every inch of the other’s body, to touch and to kiss, to caress with fingers and lips and tongues. And when he entered her again, this time with slowness and gentleness, they came with the sounds of passion and the other’s name on their lips.

And now, this time, it wasn’t about hunger or lust or craving or even passion, but was simply about being in love and wanting to express it.

 _You are so beautiful_ , he thought, gazing at her. Leaning back against the headboard, her arms around his neck, he held her as she moved oh, so slowly above him. He had seen some of the most beautiful places in the universe. The hanging gardens of Babylon. Victoria Falls before it had been discovered by humans. The crystal forests of Rhondia. The Eye of Orion. The swaying mountains of Felspoon. And of course, possibly the most magnificent, Gallifrey at suns set.

But he had never seen Rose Tyler in ecstasy. Until now.

Oddly, or perhaps not so oddly, a phrase from the wedding vows in the human Book of Common Prayer came to his mind, a phrase that had an entirely new meaning for him now. _With my body I thee worship._ And he did.

He leaned forward to kiss her, and with that slight movement, her breathing sped up and she softly moaned. And he was convinced that he had never seen true beauty until that moment.

“I love you, my Doctor,” she whispered.

And then his own breathing quickened, and he came undone.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

In that space of time between being deeply asleep and entirely awake, Rose had the best dream in her life. Warmth, she thought, the most wonderful warmth in the world. Warmth against her back. Warm breath and warm kisses against the nape of her neck. A warm hand cupping and gently massaging her breast. A hard, warm presence pressing firmly against her….

Now fully awake, her eyes opened wide and she turned her head. The mouth from her dream, which hadn't been a dream, kissed her deeply.

"Mmm. For a minute there I thought you weren't real," she said after a moment.

"Oh, I'm very real," he said in a low voice full of promise. He rocked his hips forward and in response she tilted hers backwards.

"Thought I was dreamin' again," she said after another kiss.

The Doctor smirked. "You dream about me?"

"Might have done," she answered with a still sleepy smile.

"How does the reality measure up to the fantasy?" he asked after another kiss, a touch of amusement in his voice.

"Not sure yet," Rose replied, biting her lip in an effort to hide a smirk of her own. She rolled over to face him and wrapped her arms around him. "Might have to run more tests."

"Good idea," he said. He brushed her silky blonde hair away from her face. "The scientific method… calls for… repeated testing… to verify results." He punctuated every phrase with a kiss.

"Well, we wouldn't want to go against the scientific method, would we?"

"Oh, no, no, no. Can't do that," he said, kissing her throat. His unshaven face was a pleasant roughness against her neck, as was his smattering of chest hair against her breasts.

"How 'bout you?" she asked, her eyes half closed. "Dream about me?"

"Oh yes," he murmured emphatically, moving up to kiss her lips. "For years, decades, centuries."

Out of anyone else, it would have been a line, but with him you never knew. She pulled away from him just enough to stare into his eyes. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," he told her, meeting her gaze. He was matter-of-fact about it; he could have been talking about what to have for breakfast. "I always knew there was something, someone, missing in my life, and when I met you, Rose Tyler, I discovered who it was. I've waited for you my whole life."

Rose was astonished at his words. She knew he loved her, but this…. How could she possibly respond to that? After a moment she began to grin.

"Well, then," she said, pushing him onto his back and climbing on top of him, "we mustn't make you wait any longer." She began kissing his neck and after a moment she moved lower. And lower. And lower.

The Doctor grinned crookedly as his head fell back on the pillow and his eyes fluttered closed. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly in a sigh of pleasure.

"Molto bene."

~oOo~

Late that morning, the Doctor and Rose walked hand in hand across the short distance from their flat to Mermaid Quay, where the entrance to the Hub was located. Although it was overcast, it felt almost uncomfortably warm with the humidity caused by being located right on the bay. The weather report predicted a break in the heat wave with rain coming that afternoon, and although Rose would welcome cooler temperatures, she would believe it when she saw it. Already it was the warmest summer she had ever experienced in Pete's World, and it felt like the heat would never end. She was looking forward to spending the day in the natural coolness of the underground Hub.

They made their way down a flight of stairs and along the boardwalk to the small room that masqueraded as a tourist information center but was actually the entrance to the Hub. Like any other travel office anywhere, there were large posters plastered on the outside walls advertising local places to visit.

The door to the office was unlocked, and they felt a blast of cool air from the air conditioner as they entered. To their surprise, they found Ianto Jones behind the desk. As was typical for him, despite the heat he was immaculately dressed in a suit and coordinating tie, his hair neatly trimmed and combed. Rose couldn't help but contrast him to the Doctor, who was wearing one of his new blue pinstriped suits with a coordinating t-shirt and red trainers, his hair intentionally, and artfully, messy. As nice as Ianto looked, Rose preferred the Doctor's sense of style. And his really, really great hair. In deference to the weather, Rose herself wore a tee and trousers with white trainers, her hair in a simple style she knew the Doctor liked.

"I thought you were still in London," Rose said to Ianto in confusion.

"My presence there was no longer required so I came back," he answered dryly.

_Okay_ , she thought. _Wonder what that's about?_ She and the Doctor surreptitiously exchanged glances.

"Textbook enigmatic," the Doctor whispered out of the corner of his mouth so quietly that she was certain Ianto didn't hear him. She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

"Well, I'm glad to see you here, Ianto. You wanna let us in?" she asked.

Ianto reached under the desk and the giant cog wheel that served as the door rolled to one side. The Doctor and Rose passed through the circular doorway and walked through the long tunnel that connected the tourist office to the Hub. Although she had been there less than two weeks earlier, she almost felt like she was coming home after a long time away. She had worked there for several years before working on the dimension cannon, so the Hub was in some ways even more familiar to her than the mansion had been.

And now she was returning as the boss.

She had led her own team before while working on the cannon, but there was just something different in leading this office, with these people who were almost family to her.

Possibly sensing what she was feeling, the Doctor reached over and grabbed her hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze and her a proud grin. And she grinned back. Knowing he was proud of her was even more important to her than having the respect of her coworkers.

They walked into the Hub's atrium only to see a dark brown shape fly above them. It suddenly streaked down low enough to ruffle their hair before soaring back upwards. A loud, unearthly screech echoed through the room.

"What the hell?" the Doctor exclaimed. He ducked down, hands over his head. Rose, who was used to being dive-bombed in the atrium, didn't bother to move. "Was that…"

She nodded. "A pteranodon," she answered. "Her name is Myfanwy. Ianto named her after some sort of Welsh goddess. He and Jake caught her after she came up through the Rift right after Ianto started working here."

"Oh, she's beautiful," he said in awe, staring up at her. "Myfanwy, eh? Seems Ianto has a sense of humor." When Rose looked at him curiously, he continued. "Myfanwy had a heartbreakingly lovely singing voice. Or at least she did in our universe. She could reduce a man to tears with a single note. I ought to know; she made me bawl like a baby." He paused for a moment as they watched her circle above their heads. "Why didn't I see her before?"

"She was probably out hunting. We try not to let her go out during the day so she won't be seen, but sometimes she gets out anyway. She always comes back, though." Rose pointed upwards at a ledge that was near the arching roof. "If you look hard you can see her nest up there."

He squinted and could just barely see a darker shape where she was pointing.

"You'll be able to see her better later. If you're good, I'll let you feed her a bar of chocolate," she told him with a cheeky grin, and he raised his eyebrows.

"She likes chocolate?"

"Yep." She looped her arm with his. "Let's go find the others," she said.

They found Gwen Williams and Toshiko Sato on the small balcony that held their workstations. Toshiko, casually dressed in a tee and jeans, looked very studious in her spectacles. She was doing something on her computer while Gwen, wearing a maternity dress that resembled a floral tent more than anything else, didn't even pretend to be working. Instead she sat watching the other woman with her feet propped up on a chair in front of her.

"Thank God you're here," Gwen said without preamble once she noticed Rose and the Doctor climbing the stairs to the balcony. She didn't even attempt to move her heavily pregnant body from where she was seated. "I am officially relinquishing the position of Torchwood Three's head and handing it over to you, complete with all the problems therein."

Toshiko snickered, and the Doctor and Rose looked from one woman to the other curiously.

"What problems are those?" Rose asked, not certain she wanted the answer.

"Have you seen Owen yet?" Tosh asked.

"Oh God, what's he done now?" Rose gritted her teeth apprehensively. Now she was sure she didn't want the answer.

"Nothing he hasn't done before," her friend, and former roommate, responded dryly.

"That doesn't narrow it down much. Where is he?"

"In the medbay. Hiding since he knew you were coming."

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head before leaning over the railing of the balcony.

"Oi! Owen! Front and center," she hollered down the stairwell.

"Oh, by the way," Gwen added. "Director Tyler sent a whole truckload of stuff for you, Doctor. We didn't know what the hell to do with it so we just stuck it in one of the storage rooms in the basement. What is all that stuff anyway?"

"Oh, just a little project I'm working on," he said, his face breaking out into a wide grin. He looked at Rose hopefully.

"Go on," she said with a jerk of her head, and after a kiss, which almost turned into a snog, he quickly headed back down the stairs. At seeing the kiss, Gwen and Tosh both raised their eyebrows and smirked at each other.

Owen still hadn't arrived, so Rose hollered down to him again. After a moment, the three women heard his footsteps on the stairs. When he arrived on the balcony, he was rubbing his forehead with his fingertips as if he were trying to get rid of a headache, but Rose strongly suspected he was just trying to shield his face from her. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Owen, put your hand down," she ordered.

Owen dropped his hand to his side. His nose was taped up and had obviously been broken, and he had two black eyes. Rose groaned.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"Yeah, tell her, Owen," Gwen urged. There was a trace of amusement in her voice.

"Nothing," he answered. "Nothing in particular happened."

"That's not what Andy told me," Gwen said. PC Andy Davidson was Gwen's old partner on the police force and often kept her informed on the goings on in Cardiff. "Evidently our resident doctor got a little drunk last night in a pub across from the Stadium and propositioned the wrong girl. When she turned him down, he called her a slag, among other things, and her boyfriend, who happened to be twice as big as he is, took exception."

Rose glared at him. "You. Office. Now."

The tiny room that was Rose's new office was on a higher level in the Hub than the workstation level, so Rose led the way up a short flight of stairs. Once they had arrived there, she closed the door and whirled on him.

"Less than five minutes, Owen," she said angrily. "I've been here less than five minutes and I'm already dealing with you. This has got to stop. I don't know what your problem is, and at this point I don't care, but you are acting like a complete arse. Every time you pull a stunt like this you are risking drawing unwanted attention to us, and you know Torchwood is trying to keep a low profile these days. I've got to tell you, Dad wanted to fire you last time there was a problem with you, but I stuck my neck out and asked him to reconsider. But if something like this happens again, I'll fire you myself. Do you understand?"

Owen's jaw tightened and he nodded sharply. They both knew that employees who had been fired were considered a security risk by Torchwood and were routinely Ret-conned. Owen could potentially lose years of memories.

"You are officially on probation. I don't want another bar fight, another charge of sexual harassment, hell, I don't even want to hear that you've gotten a parking ticket. Now there is _no_ way I am going to let you ruin today for me," she continued, "so I suggest you go back down to your lab, get busy, keep out of trouble, and try to stay out of my sight for the rest of the day."

After he had left, Rose sank down onto the chair behind the desk. Elbows resting on the desk, she dropped her head into her hands and rubbed her forehead. _What a way to start a new job_ , she thought. But her ability to deal with Owen was a large part of why she had gotten the position.

After a moment, she sat back and sighed. With her head resting against the back of her chair, she surveyed her new office. This was the same office that Jake and Mickey had used when they had headed Torchwood Three. The Doctor had told her that Jack Harkness headed Torchwood Three in their home universe, and for a moment Rose wondered if his office was anything like this one. Jack's office could be totally different, and in an entirely different location, she told herself. Maybe he didn't even have an office. But she wanted to believe that it was exactly the same, from the old wooden desk cluttered with papers to the shelves filled with alien artifacts. Of all the people she had known in her home universe - her extended family, her friends, her coworkers from Henrik's - she had always missed Jack the most. After the Doctor, of course. And sitting at this desk, even if it wasn't the same desk he would sit at, made her feel closer to him.

For a moment she wondered if there were an Owen Harper in their home universe. There was certainly a parallel Gwen and a parallel Ianto. She had seen them on a screen in the TARDIS after dealing with the Daleks on the Crucible. Assuming there was a parallel Owen, and that he also worked for Torchwood, she wondered how Jack would have handled him. Kicked his arse, probably. And after today it was definitely an approach she was considering.

A gentle knock at the door startled her out of her reverie. Toshiko stood in the doorway, a concerned look on her face.

"You all right?" she asked.

Rose gave her a wry grin. "I'm fine. Nothing I didn't expect. Of course I didn't expect it quite so soon. I was hoping for at least a half an hour before there was a problem with Owen."

The other woman laughed as she sat down in a chair opposite Rose. "I think that was a little too optimistic."

"I'm beginning to realize that," she answered with a laugh of her own.

"Not to change the subject or anything, but I saw the kiss the Doctor gave you earlier. I assume that means you two managed to uncomplicate things?" Toshiko raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, yeah." Rose bit her lower lip and giggled, remembering how often they had uncomplicated things the previous night. And that morning. She moved to stand up. "And speaking of him…."

Tosh grinned. "Go on. Go find him," she suggested.

~oOo~

Rose traced his steps down to the basement. He was in a large storage room at the bottom of the stairs, surrounded by what looked to be piles of broken alien tech. For a moment, she leaned against in the doorway and just watched him. Glasses on, he was deeply absorbed in examining a piece of equipment, turning it over and over in his hands and muttering to himself. Eventually, she could pick out a few words.

"Dunno, could work. But it would need a lot of modifications. Maybe if I added a temporal regulator. Have to build that, though. Maybe there's something else here…" When he began to look around the room, he spotted her standing at the door. "Oh, Rose, there you are," he said happily.

"Having fun?" she asked.

"Oh yes!" He gave her a manic grin.

The way his face lit up when he smiled like that was infectious. She grinned back and then gestured around the room. "So what is all this?"

"This is essentially my pay for a little job I'm doing for Pete. I'm updating Torchwood's translators, and in exchange he gave me all of this."

She raised her eyebrows. "Dad gave you a load of rubbish in exchange for doing something Torchwood really needs? And you are happy about it?"

"I am happy about it, and I definitely got the better part of the deal. This is not a load of rubbish, as you so eloquently put it, although all of it is completely useless to Torchwood. This," he waved his hand, encompassing everything in the room, "is going to be our TARDIS. Well, part of it anyway."

"Our TARDIS? I thought that that was what was in the tank on our kitchen counter."

"For the most part, yes. TARDISes are grown. But they are also part mechanical; they need some things integrated into them, like the controls and the time rotor. That's why I always had to scavenge for parts for the old TARDIS."

He began to pick up various items and tell her all about them, what they were and how they could be used. She smiled as she watched him talk. He was almost bouncing with excitement. In her mind's eye she could see him dancing around the console of the new TARDIS as they took their first trip somewhere.

He stopped when he saw her grinning at him.

"What?" he asked.

"'S just nice to see you so happy," she said.

The Doctor walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. "Doesn't take TARDIS pieces to make me happy, Rose Tyler. The TARDIS pieces are just the frosting on the cake. Or the whipped cream on the pie. Oh! Or the cherry on a banana split! You know, I like a good banana…"

He didn't sound like he was going to stop, so pulling his head down to hers, she shut his gob the best way she knew how.

~oOo~

That afternoon, Rhys Williams walked into the Hub carrying a huge box from a local bakery.

When Gwen had first started working for Torchwood and they had not yet gotten married, Rhys had had no idea what Gwen actually did for a living after she had left the police force. Eventually, circumstances had changed so much that not only did Rhys know about Gwen's role in Torchwood, Rhys had helped out occasionally, although in very minor ways. For example, right now he was acting as a delivery boy for his very pregnant wife.

Early that morning, Gwen had asked him to pick up a cake for her, her cravings never having subsided with the advance of her pregnancy. Rhys had argued with her over the purchase, citing health reasons. Their obstetrician had recommended no more than a 25 to 30 pound weight gain, and that through healthy foods. Gwen had listened, and then she promptly decided to ignore him. Since the meeting with her doctor, Rhys had tried to encourage his wife to follow the advice, but as usual he had lost the argument.

This time was no different. In all the years they had been together, he had never been able to change Gwen's mind when it was set. Hence the cake delivery.

As soon as Gwen saw her husband, well, as soon as she saw what her husband was carrying, she launched herself out of her chair and crossed over to him. Although launched wasn't exactly the best word to describe Gwen heaving her eighth month pregnant body out of the chair she had been sitting in.

"Oh, you are an angel of mercy, you are," she said, looking at the box rather than greeting her husband. "Red velvet?" she asked hopefully.

"A'course," he answered.

Now Gwen really did look at her husband. "Thank you," she said with a bright smile, trying to stand on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. She was a bit unsteady in that position, and her husband caught her before she tipped over.

"Bloody pregnancy," she muttered, taking the box from him and setting it on a nearby desk. "Why can't men have the babies?"

Rhys decided not to answer her, as they had had that conversation a multitude of times before, particularly while she was suffering morning sickness. And none of those discussions had gone particularly well, not for him and not for his gender.

From his desk in the Hub, Ianto raised his eyebrow at the size of the box. "I don't suppose there's enough cake in there to share with the rest of the class," he said dryly.

"How big is it?" Gwen asked Rhys.

"It's a full sheet, luv," he responded. "Made to feed forty people."

Gwen wrinkled her nose and turned to Ianto. "I suppose you can have a piece," she allowed. "A small one."

"You better be careful, Gwen," Owen said from his desk across the room. "The more weight you gain now, the harder it will be to take off later, and the harder the delivery will be."

"You just mind your own business, Owen," Rhys snapped. "If she wants cake every day, she can bloody well have it."

Gwen tried not to laugh at Rhys's reaction to Owen, given Rhys had said the same thing that very morning.

"Don't get between a pregnant woman and her cake, Owen," she warned. "Not unless you want to take your life in your hands. I may be large as a barge, but I could still take you with one hand tied behind my back."

Mind always in the gutter, a very inappropriate image of Gwen, large as a barge, crossed through his mind. But for once, Harper bit off his reply, given that Gwen's very large husband was there, glowering at him. His nose was still taped up from the last time he had insulted anyone.

At that moment, Rose and the Doctor emerged from the basement holding hands and grinning at each other. Owen nipped back to autopsy, determined to stay out of her way. Lucky for him, Rose was so focused on her Doctor that she hadn't noticed him bolting from the room.

"Gwen," Rose said without looking away from the Doctor. "We're going out. If anyone needs us they can ring my mobile."

"But don't ring us," the Doctor said without taking his eyes off Rose. "Not unless there's a full-fledged Sycorax invasion or something."

When Gwen cleared her throat, the Doctor and Rose turned to look at her and finally noticed Rhys standing there.

"Oh. Hello, I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said, letting go of Rose's hand just long enough to thrust it at the man standing next to Gwen. "We haven't met."

"Doctor, this is my husband, Rhys," Gwen said, introducing them. "Rhys, this is Rose's Doctor."

"This is him?" Rhys asked his wife.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow as he wondered just what the Cardiff gossip mill had been saying about him.

"Glad to meet you," Rhys said to him as they shook hands.

"Thank you," he replied. "Pleasure to meet you as well."

"Would you like a piece of cake? There's plenty here," Rhys offered.

"Thank you very much, but no. We'd stay…." He glanced at Rose and grinned.

"But we're heading home," Rose said, smiling with her tongue between her teeth, something that Gwen had never seen Rose do. And then she giggled, which Gwen was certain she had never heard Rose do.

The Doctor's grin widened and he raised his eyebrows suggestively, causing Rose to giggle louder. She took his hand and they walked out of the Hub, somehow managing to avoid tripping over anything even though they weren't watching where they were going.

Gwen turned away, grinning herself. In all the years she had known Rose Tyler, although she had always tried to cover it up, she had always had an underlying sadness just under the surface that Gwen could sense. And now the sadness was gone. She and her Doctor seemed so happy, she thought. And it was a truly beautiful thing to see.

~oOo~

Ten minutes later, the remaining staff had settled around the long conference table upstairs, eating the cake Rhys had brought.

"So the Doctor…" Rhys said. "He's not exactly what I expected."

"Why? What did you expect?" his wife asked him curiously.

"I dunno," he said. "From Rose's descriptions over the years, I guess I kinda expected someone, y'know, a bit more impressive. A bit more intimidating. Maybe a bit better looking, too."

They all stared at him in surprise.

"Rhys, if you knew what I know about him, you'd realize he's plenty impressive," Ianto answered, remembering his interaction with the Doctor in London.

"And he's plenty intimidating, too," Owen interjected. "Having been on the receiving end of it, believe me, you don't want to see him when he's being intimidating. Just be glad he's on our side."

"And Rhys, even you have to admit he's a bit nice," his wife added teasingly. Crossing his arms in front of him, Rhys scowled at her.

"Nice?" Toshiko said, grinning. "I think he's kinda hot."

Everyone stared at her after her uncharacteristic comment. Gwen bit her lip, trying not to laugh.

Tosh looked at them curiously. "What?"


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Several days after the Doctor and Rose had left for Cardiff, Pete Tyler sat behind his government-issued metal desk in his Torchwood office, examining the report on the break-in of the mansion. There was precious little in it, and nothing he hadn't known to begin with. The alarm system seemed to have been bypassed; there was no sign of forced entry, no finger prints, and there appeared to be nothing missing.

The only piece of evidence that the agents had mentioned was a single footprint in one of the flowerbeds behind the mansion, and they had only known about it after the Doctor had pointed it out to them. The surveillance equipment that the Doctor had discovered in Pete's study was not discussed because they had not told the field agents about it. The Doctor, Pete and Rose had jointly decided that they did not want to risk alerting the traitor that they knew about the bugs.

A knock on the door was a welcome relief from the report in front of him. He looked up.

"Come in," he ordered gruffly.

Pete's assistant, Todd Richards, opened the door and stuck his head in. A young man in his early twenties, Todd had worked directly for Pete for several years, having come to work for him immediately after the University. Pete trusted him implicitly. He served as Pete's personal assistant, primarily working for him at Torchwood, but also assisting him at Vitex as needed. Pete had other administrative assistants at Vitex, but Todd coordinated his schedule between Torchwood and Vitex and assisted in anything Pete needed help with, both at work and at home.

"Sir, Jake Simmonds is here to see you," Todd told him. His thick, round glasses made him look slightly owlish and his light brown hair looked, as always, in desperate need of a cut.

"Send him in."

Jake Simmonds had known Pete Tyler from before his days as the director of Torchwood. They had met during the whole Cybermen mess and had become friends during the time they had worked both with the Preachers. When Tyler had become the director, he had brought both Jake and Mickey into the organization as well, and Jake had eventually become second in command of the agency.

"Hey, Boss." Jake entered the small office and shook Pete's hand. He mouthed, _it safe to talk in here_?

Pete nodded. "Yeah. The Doctor checked it out before he and Rose left."

Jake let out a small sigh of relief and sat down on a chair across from Pete. "Well, at least that's good news." He gestured at the papers on the desk. "I see you got the report."

"Yeah, for what good it does. It's not worth the paper it's written on. How did your own investigation go?"

"Not much better," Jake admitted. "The intruder was likely a male between 20 and 40, somewhere around 6 ft tall, probably weighed about 175 lbs, and likely had either a police or military background."

"So basically what the Doctor said."

Jake shrugged. "Pretty much. I do have some news, though. A dead body was discovered outside Manchester last night. Cause of death, unknown."

"What does that have to do with us? Wouldn't that be a matter for the Manchester police?"

"Yeah, except that the medical examiner's report states that the body was that of a 6 ft 1 in male, 177 lbs and approximately 35 years old."

"Really?" Pete asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

Jake nodded. "There's more. Fingerprints indicate his name was Robert Shaw, and until about 2 years ago he worked for us."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. Looks like we may have found the person who broke into your house."

"Yeah, dead." Leaning back in his chair, Pete took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Now what?"

"Well, evidently whoever was behind the break-in has been tying up loose ends. I tried to find out what Shaw has been doing for the past two years, and I couldn't find anything on him. Nothing. He had no credit cards, no bank account, no car, no flat, no nothing. It's like he dropped off the face of the Earth two years ago."

Pete swore under his breath. "So we have no idea if he was part of this, whatever this is, or if he was hired."

"Your guess is as good as mine," Jake responded.

"Was there any kind of link between Shaw and Lisa Hallett?"

"Not that I could find." Jake leaned forward in his chair. "So what do you want me to do now? Head up to Glasgow?"

Pete shook his head. "Not yet. Something about this just doesn't feel right. The Doctor said that the bugs in my study came from Torchwood, but if Shaw stopped working for us two years ago, he couldn't have gotten them. Which means there's someone else here who did. I want you to go over everything one more time and see if you can figure out who it could be."

Jake was silent for a moment, running through the names of staff members in his mind. Everyone had secrets, and there was always the temptation to gossip about what they did, but for the life of him, he couldn't think of a single one who could be a traitor.

"What about Rose and the Doctor?" Jake asked.

"I don't want them involved in this," he told him. "We'll handle this one ourselves."

"Boss, does this have anything to do with all the rumors I've been hearing about an alien invasion?"

"I don't know," Pete admitted. "And I have no idea where those rumors are coming from. Jake, you have different sources than I do. What have you heard?"

"Not much," Jake answered. "Not even the type of alien involved. All I've been hearing is just that there's going to be one. But that makes no sense. Why would aliens broadcast that they were going to invade before they did it?"

"I can't imagine, unless they were just trying to gain a psychological advantage by generating fear in the populous. But I'm only hearing about it from sources in the government, not the news and not the public at large. And you'd think Torchwood would know about this first."

"Well, at least I'd hope so," Jake said ruefully. "I'd hate to think we were losing our touch with this sort of thing." He leaned forward. "Pete, why aren't Rose and the Doctor involved in this? I'd think that with their experience, you'd want them to be in the thick of it."

"Jake, Lisa Hallett found out that the Doctor isn't entirely human and tried to blackmail Rose with the information. I don't want to risk that happening again." He looked at the other man grimly. "Whatever is going on, I want them as far away from it as possible. If someone gets wind of exactly who, and what, the Doctor is, it could put not only him and Rose in danger, but Jackie and Tony, too. No," he said. "I want more information before we pull them into this."

"So where are they, Rose and the Doctor?"

Pete shook his head again. "Nope. I'm not even telling you. It's not that I don't trust you; I don't want anyone to know where they are. It's safer for everyone this way. We've already got too many people who know." _Like Jackie_ , he thought. But he hadn't thought of a way to keep it from her without flat out lying to her, and he had never been able to lie to her without her figuring it out instantly.

"Back to Preacher procedures, then," Jake said and Pete nodded soberly. _If the boss wants to go back to doing things the Preachers' way, things must be worse than I thought._ The younger man stood up to leave.

"Wait, Jake. I need to talk to you about one more thing." After he sat back down, Pete took a deep breath. "It's about Mickey. After Rose, you were his best friend. Did you know what he was going to do?"

Jake looked at the older man evenly for a moment before responding. "Yes," he admitted quietly.

"Why didn't he tell me?" Pete asked.

Jake shrugged. "He thought it would be easier on everyone this way. He was worried that you or Jackie might try to stop him, and you had the power to do it. Don't get me wrong, he loved it here, but he always felt in the back of his mind that he didn't really belong here. Particularly after his grandmother died. And when he realized that he might have a chance to go back, he jumped at it."

Pete was stunned. "I had no idea he felt that way. I just wish he had told me. I wouldn't have stopped him if he really wanted to go."

"He didn't want to risk it," Jake told him. "And he wouldn't have admitted this, but I think that he was afraid if Jackie knew in advance, she might have been able to get him to change his mind and that was the only chance he'd have to go back."

They both fell silent, remembering the man who had become one of their closest friends and confidants. "Mickey Smith is a good man," Pete said after a few moments. "I'm gonna miss him."

"Yeah," Jake said. "Me too."

~oOo~

"It was supposed to be routine," Rose explained. "And it would have been if that dog barking in the next street hadn't spooked it. These things happen."

She was sitting on the examination table in the Hub's medbay with her t-shirt off and her bra strap lowered. Owen Harper stood next to her, cleaning a very deep Weevil bite she had received on her left shoulder. Meanwhile, the Doctor had scanned her with his sonic and was examining the readings he got.

"Weevil bites are extremely nasty," Owen told her, "as you undoubtedly remember. An extremely high risk of infection. That's assuming you even survive the encounter. Most people don't. You're lucky it didn't rip your arm off." As he spoke, he bandaged up the wound with a large square of gauze and medical tape.

The Doctor took a deep breath and let it out slowly in an attempt to control his anger over her injury. He had been working in the basement when the call had come in to deal with an alien caused disturbance. Rose had assured him that they could handle it themselves without his help and urged him to continue working on the pieces that would form the new TARDIS console. He reluctantly agreed, not wanting to put her in a position of ordering him to stay in the Hub. But now he was kicking himself for not insisting on going with, despite knowing there was nothing he could have done to prevent her injury. When Owen and Ianto had returned with her, with Ianto carrying her in due to the blood loss she had sustained, he had been both livid and terrified. After his initial flash of rage, which he had only just barely contained, he reminded himself that Rose proven to him time and again that she could handle anything the universe, any universe, could throw at her. But that didn't mean he had to like it.

"What happened to the weevil?" he asked.

"Got away," Torchwood's doctor answered.

"What do you do with the weevils when you catch them?"

"We wanted to ship them off planet, but we didn't know where they were from and we didn't know how to find out," Rose told him. "We knew we had to put them somewhere; we couldn't keep them locked up indefinitely. About five years ago there was a tiny island for sale about halfway between here and Ireland, so tiny it didn't even have a name. Well, Torchwood bought it and stocked it with chickens and rabbits. After a couple of years we started putting any weevil there that we captured. It's perfect for them: no predators, no people and plenty of food. Eventually if we ever figure out where they're from, we'll ship them back there, but in the meantime they're not bothering us and we're not bothering them."

While she spoke, Owen crossed the room and opened a cupboard. He retrieved a syringe, filled it, and crossed back over to his patient. "Now I've already injected you with a painkiller, but this is a broad spectrum antibiotic which should help prevent you from getting an infection." After giving her the shot, he then went back to the cupboard and withdrew a large jar filled with pills. He shook some out into a small container, handed it to the Doctor and put the rest back.

"This is a combination of hydrocodone and paracetamol," he told the Doctor. "If she wakes up in the middle of the night, give her one of these with a full glass of water. The medication I already gave her could make her drowsy, so I'd get her home fairly quickly."

"Can she walk?" the Doctor asked. "Or should I go get her car and bring it 'round?"

Rose glared at both of them. "'She' is gonna punch both of you if you keep on calling her 'she'."

"Depends on how she feels," Owen answered, ignoring her. "You two live close. If she feels well enough to walk, you can walk. The drowsiness shouldn't kick in for at least another half an hour. Just try to get her to take a day or two off, or at least until she's not in any pain without the meds."

A voice called down to them from the observation level. "Rose, we couldn't find a spare shirt for you, but Ianto offered to loan you his," Toshiko said as she descended the stairs to the medbay. Ianto followed close behind, holding a short sleeve button down shirt in his hand. He had discarded his suit jacket and was now only wearing a vest with his trousers. "He was the only one of us who wore a shirt today that you don't have to pull over your head."

"Thanks, Ianto," Rose said, taking the shirt from him. Rose's own top had both been shredded by the weevil and cut off of her by Owen. The Doctor helped her carefully put the shirt on over her injured shoulder while she slipped her arm through the other sleeve. He bent to button it for her when she turned back to the shirt's owner. "I really didn't feel like flashing Cardiff while we walked home."

"No problem," Ianto responded.

"By the way, nice muscle definition, Yan," she said with a grin. She winked at him. "Have you been working out?"

The Doctor looked up at her sharply while Ianto raised his eyebrows and Toshiko tried to stifle a laugh.

Owen snickered. "Oh, did I forget to mention that the pain reliever I gave her also has the side effect of acting like an intoxicant? Looks like it's kicking in."

"Okay, let's go," the Doctor said while he helped Rose to her feet. She swayed a bit and he caught her. She looked up at him.

"Oh. Hello," she said, sounding as if she were surprised to see him there.

"Hello," he replied, smiling back down at her. "Time to get you home and into bed."

Rose gave him a flirtatious smile, the tip of her tongue peeking out from between her teeth.

"Promise?"

~oOo~

The Doctor closed the door to their bedroom, after finally having gotten Rose back to the flat and in bed. After she had fallen asleep, which was almost immediately after her head hit the pillow, he had scanned her again with his sonic. The readings were disturbing. Oh, she was doing fine, better than fine, actually, and it was how well she was doing that concerned him. If he hadn't known better, based on the scan he had just taken he would have guessed that the injuries had happened days ago, rather than just hours. His mind returned to a conversation he and Rose had had with Owen only a couple of weeks earlier.

_"These are Tyler's results. I put them on the USB drive as well. There's nothing wrong with you," Harper said, addressing Rose directly._

_"Well, that's good," the Doctor said. Owen looked at him evenly. "That's good, right?"_

_"No. It's not good. It's impossible." Torchwood's doctor responded. "I have never seen anyone with nothing wrong. Even the healthiest people in the world will have a touch of arthritis, evidence of a previous bone break, a cavity, a cold sore. She has nothing. And she should. She broke her wrist about five years ago, I set it myself, and not only has it completely healed, but there is no evidence it was ever broken. That shouldn't be possible. Other than being overly tired and a bit thin, she is physically perfect. So I looked at her genetically. Again, physically perfect. Not one coding sequence out of order. I've never seen that. I've never even heard of that. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have said it was statistically impossible."_

The Doctor walked to the window and stared out at the stars shining over the bay. Not only was he troubled because he couldn't identify the source of the changes to Rose's physiology, he also didn't know what the end result might be, how it would affect her long term. And, most importantly, he was concerned that her ability to heal could lead her to be more reckless than she otherwise would be. The weevil could easily have killed her rather than just wounded her, and her ability to heal wouldn't have brought her back from that.

In his focus on the move to Cardiff, he realized he had neglected researching Rose's condition. And that was going to change.

~oOo~

The next morning, the Doctor awoke and blindly reached for Rose. To his surprise, he found that her side of the bed was empty. He had expected her to wake in the middle of the night needing a pain reliever, but she had slept through the night and had evidently gotten up before he had.

After pulling on his dressing gown, he walked into the other room to find Rose sitting at the kitchen island drinking tea. Her long blonde hair hung about her shoulders and she was only wearing the oversized button down nightshirt and knickers she had worn to bed.

_Blimey, she's gorgeous,_ he thought. He crossed the room and sat on a bar stool next to her.

She grinned at him. "Hey, you're up. You want a cuppa? It's still hot. I thought we could grab some coffee at the Hub later."

He raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were supposed to stay home today," he said pointedly. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine."

"No pain in your shoulder?"

She shook her head. "Nope."

His brow furrowed. "I need to check your wound," he told her. She unbuttoned her shirt and he carefully removed the tape and gauze covering her injury.

It wasn't there. The only evidence that it had even been there were several thin white scars where her wound had been, and he suspected she wouldn't even have those in a few days. Troubled, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"It's all better," he said quietly.

"And it shouldn't be," she said, continuing his thought. "And that worries you."

The Doctor was silent for a moment. He thought about lying. He thought about telling her she was fine, that there was no problem, that there was nothing to be concerned about. She might even believe it. After all, he was good at lying. Very, very good.

"Yes," he admitted finally. "It worries me."


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

He was sitting at his desk when he felt his mobile vibrate, signaling a call. He reached into his pocket to pull it out and realized in shock that he wasn’t receiving the call on his everyday phone. Instead, it was that mobile.

Lips pursed, he stared at it for a moment while it quietly buzzed in his hand. Although he always carried it with him, he only rarely received calls on that phone, and he had never received one during the day, let alone at work.

He stood up, walked to the door of the office and looked up and down the corridor to see if there was anyone within earshot. He heard voices and laughter coming from an office at the end of the hall, but he saw no one. He closed the door and answered the phone cautiously.

" _Can you talk?_ " said the voice in his ear.

“Yes, but I might not have been able to,” he said pointedly. “What if I had been in a meeting? You’re taking a big risk by calling at this time of day.”

" _Where are they?_ " 

His brow furrowed in confusion, and he asked the obvious question. 

“Where are who?”

" _John Smith and Rose Tyler! Where are they?_ "

“I don’t know what you mean.”

" _They are gone! They are not here!_ " 

His heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean they aren’t here?”

" _As in, not here! Not in London! And none of my sources know where they went! You were supposed to be watching them and you lost them!_ " There was silence for a moment, and then the other’s voice grew low and dangerous. " _You were supposed to be watching them and not only did you lose them, but you didn’t even know, did you?_ "

He swallowed nervously and didn’t answer. 

" _How could you not know? Haven’t you been monitoring the surveillance we put in Tyler’s mansion?_ "

“I’ve tried,” he said, unable to prevent a whiny tone from creeping into his voice. “But I haven’t been able to get anything off of it. I don’t think it’s working.” 

The silence coming from the other end of the line was deafening, and the longer it lasted, the more anxious he became. He had screwed up. Not once, not twice, but three times. And things did not go well for those who screwed up.

" _Find them,_ " the other growled finally. " _Look for them as if your life depended on it. Because it very well may._ ”

~oOo~

The next day, the Doctor began to work on analyzing Rose’s physiology again. He had all the data from the first battery of tests that Owen had performed several weeks earlier, and now he and Owen ran all of the tests again, along with as many other tests they could think of: x-rays, C-T scans, MRIs, DNA analysis… Throughout the course of the day, they would periodically call Rose down from her office to run another test. They used human medical equipment and alien technology from Torchwood; the Doctor even scanned her multiple times with his sonic screwdriver to get more data. They did so many blood tests Rose began to complain of feeling like a pin cushion.

But no matter what they tried, they got the same results. According to every test they performed, including some that the Doctor invented, she was physically and genetically perfect. Her DNA tests stated that she was completely and utterly human. And what’s more, she was completely free of any alien influences or parasites. There was nothing wrong with her. Absolutely nothing. 

By the end of the day, he and Owen had exhausted all of Torchwood’s medical resources and had no more insight into her condition than they had begun with. The most discouraging part of it all was the fact that even the sonic screwdriver hadn’t found anything. He had been sure that at the very least the sonic would have been able find the answer. He reminded himself that it was possible his new screwdriver just wasn’t sensitive enough to pick up minute readings from her. If that were the case, it would actually be good news because that could be fixed with a little programming and calibration. But what really worried him was that if fine tuning his sonic didn’t work, he might have hit a dead end.

~oOo~

Over the next several weeks, Rose tried to get used to the day to day grind of working for Torchwood Three again. Her shoulder had completely healed within two days; even all of the scarring had disappeared. Yet despite letting him perform every medical test known to mankind on her, and many that weren’t, she could tell the Doctor was still concerned about her. He’d frequently get a worried look on his face that would instantly turn into a manic grin as soon as he realized she was looking at him. But whenever she tried to question him about it, he wouldn’t discuss it, only saying he needed to do more research.

So she put the questions about her health in the back of her mind and concentrated on her job. Even though they were part of the same organization, working for Torchwood in Cardiff was completely different than working in London. For one thing, with a smaller facility and a smaller staff, Torchwood Three was a lot less formal than Torchwood Four. Work hours were more flexible, dress was more casual, they had a pteranodon for a pet… And for another, the cases that they had to handle were completely different than what London usually dealt with. Although dealing with aliens was always a strange business on the best of days, the cases in Cardiff were much more… bizarre. There were the ghosts at Cardiff Castle, the fish-head people, the fairies in the woods, the leprechauns in Splott….

One day, there were reports of enormous black dogs the size of elephants roaming the area. It turned out to be a group hallucination brought on by the exhaust of an alien spacecraft. It was evidently overdue for a tune up and was releasing a hallucinogen into the air along with the typical exhaust fumes. Then there was the case of an alien family who had come as tourists and had missed their transport back off-planet. Their shimmers had stopped working and they had run out of money and couldn’t book passage home. They also had the misfortune of looking like 6 ft tall mauve rabbits with bright green polka dots, so they were having an understandably tough time earning the money for tickets on the next ship out. They had only managed to avoid causing a panic because people just thought they were in fancy dress. In the end, Ianto found them a place to stay and got them bookings to appear at children’s birthday parties. 

Not to say there weren’t dangerous cases in Cardiff. There were. And quite frequently in fact. But they always seemed to be a bit more odd than the ones in London, almost as if the Rift had made everything a quarter turn off. And of course there were more of the endless weevil incidents, but fortunately there were no more injuries.

And to Rose’s relief, there were no more Owen incidents. At least for the time being.

While Rose was settling into her new job, the Doctor worked on shatterfrying the plasma shell of the baby TARDIS coral using setting 457-A on his new sonic screwdriver and finished examining all the alien tech that had either come from Torchwood London or up through the Rift. He also upgraded Torchwood’s alien language translator with hundreds of new languages from the galaxy as well as corrected the vocabulary and grammar of the ones that the translator already had. 

At the same time, Toshiko helped him get set up with an advanced computer system. They had initially looked at a variety of computers available in stores, and while they managed to buy Rose a new EPad, they couldn’t find anything that even approached his requirements. Finally, they decided on making him one with the best components available from computer supply companies as well as a few items from the Hub. Once it was built, he immediately upgraded it with the help of his sonic screwdriver.

In between projects, he took tours of various properties with an estate agent that Ianto had recommended. He had received an extensive map of the Rift and all its branches from Toshiko and used it to plot out the most likely places for growing a baby TARDIS. To his disappointment, the TARDIS was not growing as he had hoped it would. Shatterfrying the plasma shell didn’t seem to be working, and he wasn’t sensing the coral telepathically yet. He had hoped that moving it to Cardiff would help it grow, but up to this point having the coral near the Rift didn’t seem to be working. He tried to reassure himself that it was only a matter of time before it would respond, and that made him all the more determined that when they found a place it be close to a branch of the Rift.

Not knowing about the TARDIS, or even about the Rift, the estate agent couldn’t understand his decisions, rejecting some properties out of hand, sight unseen, while deciding to look at other properties of dubious value. Finally, at her wit’s end, she told him about a property that was farther out of town than they had originally discussed but seemed on the surface to meet his requirements. The Doctor took one look at it and purchased it immediately, not even quibbling about the price.

“ _And it’s empty right now so we can move in right away,_ ” he said on the phone to Rose later.

“You already bought it?” she asked, shocked, and then wondered why she should be shocked. Of course he’d buy it without talking to her. “And you didn’t think I might want to see it first?”

“ _But Rose, it’s perfect, absolutely perfect. And I tried ringing you, but you weren’t in the Hub and you weren’t picking up your mobile._ ”

She sighed and hoped that what he had found wasn’t a complete disaster.

Following the instructions he had given her over the phone, she made her way out to the property. It was a centuries-old stone farmhouse on ten mostly wooded acres at the end of an unpaved road. A long, low outbuilding that had once served as a barn sat next to it. Entirely surrounded by forest and farmland, it was at least a half a mile from its nearest neighbor and fifteen minutes out of town. 

She pulled her car up to the front of the house. The door stood open, so she approached it cautiously, her Torchwood training, history with the Doctor and television watching all coming into play. 

However her concerns were unfounded. The entrance opened into a moderately sized sitting room containing oak floors finished to a glossy shine, white plaster walls that had been freshly painted and exposed beams on the ceiling that spanned the width of the room. Wide windows stretched across the front of the house, filling the room with natural light, and a large, river rock fireplace took up most of the side wall. It was beautiful, far nicer than she had expected. The Doctor was a brilliant man, but his taste was often questionable, or at least unconventional, and she had been afraid he’d chosen something… well, she wasn’t sure exactly, but bizarre at any rate.

“So, what do you think?” he said, entering from the far side of the room.

“No carpets, huh?”

He grinned. “Not a one in the entire place. C’mon, let me show you.”

Grabbing her hand, he dragged her from room to room, telling her the history of the house and pointing out what he considered were all the important features. Rose barely paid attention to him, instead focusing on the rooms around her. Besides the living room, there was also a large kitchen on the ground floor at the back of the house and a small loo off the kitchen. Above, there were three bedrooms and two bathrooms. While they toured the place, he told her that the house had been completely gutted and remodeled recently, complete with new wiring and plumbing, and that the barn had both electricity and running water. 

Rose noticed in relief that there were all new appliances in the kitchen and a luxuriously remodeled en suite off the master bedroom, complete with a separate, tiled shower, a double sink vanity, and a bathtub that was large enough for two.

“Now this is unusual for a farmhouse,” she said. She grinned as she thought of all the ways that tub could be put to good use.

“Primary selling feature. Well, that and the location. The Rift runs right along the far side of the property. Oh, and the barn, of course.”

“Yeah, I saw that outside,” she said. “What d’ya need a barn for? Are you planning on raising livestock? I understand organic farming is quite trendy nowadays.” Her mouth twitched in amusement.

He shot her a look. “Of course not,” he said. “That’s for my lab and my workshop. And the TARDIS nursery of course, and, well, other stuff. Unless you would prefer me to do my research in our bedroom.”

She raised an eyebrow. She was sure he had missed the double entendre. Until he leered at her. Evidently he intended it. 

“You know, we _could_ christen our new room.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

“Might I remind you that there is no furniture in this house? And there is a beautiful bedroom, with a beautiful bed, just 15 minutes away in our flat?”

He tutted and shook his head. “If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I’d have never believed it. You, Rose Tyler, are getting stodgy. Stodgy! I blame it on the fact that you are now the boss at Torchwood Three.”

She gaped at him, eyebrows raised. Now there was a challenge if she had ever heard one. And Rose Marion Tyler never backed down from a challenge.

“Stodgy, am I? I’ll show you stodgy,” she said. She grabbed his jacket and pulled him into the bedroom. “Allons-y, Doctor.”

He grinned widely at her. “Allons-y, Rose Tyler.”


	18. Chapter 17

The evening that the Doctor had purchased a house, Rose phoned her parents to let them know about it.

" _Now don't forget_ ," Pete said over the phone, " _let me handle the paperwork. You'll own it, but I don't want anyone to be able to trace you through it_."

"Alright, Dad," Rose agreed. "'S fine with me, and the Doctor doesn't care what the title says. He doesn't believe in 'em anyway."

Pete laughed. " _Why doesn't that surprise me_?"

While Pete Tyler was pleased that they had found a house, Jackie Tyler, having known the Doctor for years, was shocked.

" _A house_ ," Jackie said in disbelief. " _The Doctor bought a house_?"

"Yes, Mum," Rose said. "He… we… bought a house. I told you we were thinking about it."

" _Yeah, but I didn't think you were gonna really do it_."

"Why not?" Rose asked.

" _Cos it's the Doctor_ ," her mother replied. " _Never could picture him with a house. Never could picture him with a flat. Actually, I never could even picture him…._ " Her voice trailed off.

"What?"

" _Well, I never could picture him… stuck in one place like this._ "

Rose sighed. She had had the same thoughts. Somehow, the Doctor living in a house and being tied to one place and time still seemed… wrong. "Yeah, I know."

" _How's he doin' with all this_?" Jackie asked.

Rose was silent for a moment. He seemed happy most of the time, but every once in a while she'd catch a glimpse of something in his face and she'd know he was worried about something, and she suspected it wasn't just about her. And she knew that most nights, after he thought she was asleep, he'd get up and stand at the windows of the flat and stare out, and not at the bay or the city, but at the stars.

"Fine," she answered, suspecting it was a lie. "He's doing fine."

~oOo~

" _Have you found them yet_?" said the voice on the other end of the phone.

"No," he admitted. "None of my sources have any idea where they went, and many didn't even know that Rose Tyler and John Smith had left London."

" _We need to find them. Our brothers have confirmed the details of Harper's medical report. This John Smith is not fully human. He is actually a dangerous alien known as the Doctor, and his enemies have called him The Oncoming Storm and The Killer of His Own Kind. He is utterly ruthless, and he is all the more dangerous and unstable because of a quirk of his creation._ "

Although he knew John Smith – no, the Doctor, he told himself – was a risk to their operation, initially he truly hadn't believed that the man was even part alien, and certainly not as the other had just described. It didn't fit what he knew of him. For a moment, an image of the man in question flashed through his mind. Tall, thin, and young looking with a manic personality and decidedly questionable tastes in hairstyle and clothing, he didn't appear to be a threat to anyone. "Are you certain? I have met him and he seems so… ordinary."

" _Do not let outward appearances fool you. Our brothers have seen into his soul. We must find and destroy him before he destroys us_."

"There may be a way," he said thoughtfully. "Phase two is set to begin."

" _Oh, you can't possibly imagine he is just going to turn himself in._ "

"Stranger things have happened," he said. "Meanwhile, I'll arrange to step up the surveillance of Pete Tyler. And Jake Simmonds. He's been put in charge of the investigation of the Tyler break-in."

" _Watch Jackie Tyler as well. Rose Tyler is particularly close to her mother. She'll eventually contact her, and when she does, we'll find her. And when we find her, we'll find him as well._ "

~oOo~

Pete Tyler was stuck in traffic. Deciding to take the motorway home rather than the side streets was proving to be a mistake. A lorry had taken a turn too sharp and now there were approximately five thousand watermelons covering the road ahead. The big, black SUV he was driving probably would have been able to drive straight through them, but that wasn't an option considering there were at least ten cars in front of him.

Plus with his luck, he'd probably end up getting watermelon seeds in his transmission or something. And his Aston Martin was still in the shop.

He groaned. It looked like he was going to miss tea again. He had promised Jackie he'd be home in time to have his tea with her and Tony at least four times this week, but he had already missed three times and it was only Thursday. He was not looking forward to calling home to tell her he was going to be late.

Finally, one of the lanes had been cleared and traffic started moving. Slowly. Very, very slowly. Glancing at his watch, Pete realized that if he took the next exit and somehow managed to avoid stopping at any traffic lights, he might make it home in time.

Cutting through traffic as best he could, he finally made it to the far left lane. He pulled onto the shoulder, bypassed a number of cars, and made it to the exit.

Evidently he wasn't the only one to have that idea as at least a half dozen other cars followed him off the motorway and onto the side streets. He wasn't certain he was actually going to make it home any more quickly, but it did feel like progress to have the car moving rather than stopped in traffic or crawling at 5 mph.

Traffic seemed to be slowing up ahead so he took a quick left, heading into a shopping district. A glance in his rearview mirror made him chuckle. Several cars had followed him, evidently having the same idea.

"Well, great minds think alike," he said to himself.

As he drove, he congratulated himself for having managed to avoid a lecture from Jackie. He loved that woman but blimey, she had a mouth on her sometimes.

He turned again, heading generally south, and a couple of cars followed him, obviously not just avoiding traffic but headed the same direction as he was. He recognized one of them as having been several cars behind him while on the motorway.

The traffic light ahead was red. Pete glanced at his watch and winced. He had five more miles to go and Jackie would consider him officially 'late' in ten minutes. He took the first left before the light, headed down three blocks and then took a right, now driving on a road parallel to the one he had been on before. And then groaned in frustration when the light changed right before he got to the intersection.

Stopped yet again, he idly looked around. He hadn't been to this section of town before. A department store, a few restaurants, a couple of pubs…. And then something in the rearview mirror caught his eye. A blue sedan, three car lengths back. He recognized that car. That was the same car that had been behind him on the motorway. And it had been three cars back then, too.

The coincidence was too great. He had driven randomly in an attempt to get through the city more quickly. There was no way that that car should be going in the same direction. No, the car had to be following him.

The light changed as he was pulling out his mobile, but instead of moving forward he stayed put, one foot on the accelerator, the other on the brake. He ignored the sounds of car horns behind him. Just as the light was about to change again, he slipped his foot off the brake and sped through the intersection. The sedan remained where it was, stuck behind a careful driver who had decided not to try and beat the light.

Pete made several more turns at random, heading in the opposite direction of the mansion. It probably was pointless; undoubtedly they knew where he lived, but better safe than sorry. Once he was fairly certain the car was no longer following him, he pressed the speed dial on his mobile.

" _Yeah, Boss_?"

"Jake, I've got a problem," Pete said. "I picked up a tail driving home tonight. Luckily whoever it was wasn't particularly experienced and I lost him pretty quickly."

" _You're not the only one who picked up a tail," he replied. "I just shook one off a few minutes ago._ "

Pete swore, using a long combination of words in both human and alien languages.

" _Did you see the car that was following you_?" Jake asked.

"I didn't get a good look at it. Could have been a late model Cavalier, dark blue, but I'm not sure and I didn't see the number plates."

" _Not really worth checking with that little information._ "

"Nope." Pete sighed exasperatedly. "Listen, you be careful. I think it's time for you to head up to Glasgow."

" _Boss, Mickey and me, we faced a lot tougher things than this. I'm not afraid of these arseholes._ "

"I know you're not, but I need you up there anyway and now's as good a time as any," he said as he pulled back onto the motorway and headed out of town. "I'm gonna drive around a bit before going home, just to make sure I'm not being followed anymore. Maybe you should do the same thing."

" _Not a bad idea_ ," Jake said. " _Good luck_."

"Thanks. You, too," Pete answered and rang off. "And I'm gonna need it cos now comes the dangerous bit," he muttered under his breath. "I've got to call Jackie and tell her I'm not gonna be home in time for tea."

~oOo~

Rose spent the next week getting their new house outfitted with furniture and the other necessities of owning a home. The Doctor decided to go with her on the first of her shopping trips, but she strongly suspected before they had even left that that would be a mistake. She got the confirmation, though, when his eyes began to glaze over at the first store before they had made a single purchase.

_"You seriously want me to discuss whether we should purchase Danish Modern or Mission Style furniture?" he asked, a pained look on his face._

_"Well, yeah, unless you want to sleep on the floor." She tried to say it seriously, but she had to bite her lip to try and prevent herself from laughing at his expression._

_"And then you want us to pick out… curtains? And… and… and throw rugs?" He looked like he had bit into a lemon. Or maybe a pear. "What is a throw rug anyway? It sounds like a bizarre sporting event. You've got the javelin toss, the shot put and the throw rug." He shook his head in disbelief. "This is going to kill me. Literally kill me, and may I remind you I can't regenerate anymore? And do you really want my death on your conscience?"_

_"And may I remind you that it was your idea that you come with in the first place? Why'd you want to come along anyway?" To her surprise he gave her a look that reminded her a bit of a lovesick puppy. She laughed, and he grinned at her._

_"C'mon," she said, looping her arm through his. "If you're a very good boy, I'll take you out for a banana split later."_

~oOo~

The rest of the week, while Rose finished with the shopping for the house, the Doctor concentrated on converting the old barn into a high tech research laboratory. On the day they were to actually move in, he enlisted the help of the entire staff of Torchwood Three, as well as Gwen's husband Rhys, to get it set up. Rose had been able to get delivery people and movers to set up the house, but the things necessary to outfit the lab largely came from Torchwood and were classified. Hence using the staff as movers. Everyone was happy to help, even Owen, who was still trying to get in Rose's good graces.

Bored out of her mind due to inactivity brought on by her pregnancy, Gwen would have been delighted to help as well. Unfortunately she wasn't up to much more than sitting back with her feet up and barking out the occasional order at the last of the movers delivering the furniture for the house. Rhys was thrilled at that; it meant she wasn't barking orders at him.

After the lab was finished, computer installed, future TARDIS materials delivered and stored, and the TARDIS coral set up in a nutrient filled growing tank, everyone gathered in the large kitchen of the farmhouse eating the pizzas Rose had ordered. A box containing a chocolate cake that Gwen had brought sat on the counter nearby.

"By the way," Gwen said between bites of cheese and pepperoni. "Did you two know that you are currently in Asia?"

The Doctor and Rose exchanged puzzled glances.

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked.

"While all of you were moving things around, I was watching _How the Other Half Lives_ on telly. You know how at the end they update what's going on with famous people? They announced the two of you were traveling, were currently in Tokyo, and were headed to Hong Kong next."

"I heard that, too," Ianto interjected. "It was in the human interest section on the news last night. It was part of a press release from Vitex. According to them, the two of you are visiting Asia to determine the most likely sites to build a new Vitex plant. I assumed you knew."

"Pete is trying to mislead people about where we are," the Doctor said thoughtfully. "But why?"

"And they said Hong Kong?" Rose asked Ianto. "You sure it was Hong Kong?"

"Yes," he answered.

"Why? What's so special about Hong Kong?" the Doctor asked.

Rose shook her head. "Nothing. 'S nothing." _Probably_ , she added silently. _Hopefully_.


	19. Chapter 18

A few days later, Gwen Williams sat in the Hub with her feet up, nominally watching telly. On the wall behind her was a whiteboard Ianto had installed with a large number written on it, which was the number of days until her baby was due. It currently read 17.

Everyone in the Hub had told her over and over she didn't have to come in, that she deserved to have some time off, but she insisted on showing up anyway, arguing that at least she could field some phone calls and occasionally man the tourist information desk. But the truth was she was bored. B.O.R.E.D. BORED. Rhys was on a three day truck run, subbing for one of his drivers who had fallen ill, and with him gone their flat was just too plain quiet.

She turned off the television when she heard the voices of the Doctor and Rose filter in from the tunnel entrance to the Hub.

"So it _still_ doesn't do wood?" Rose said in disbelief as they walked into the Hub.

"Oi, Earth girl, don't diss the sonic!" the Doctor replied sharply and then winced.

Rose's eyebrows shot up. "Earth girl?"

The Doctor's lip curled in disgust. "Well, isn't that wizard. I thought I was done with Donna's mannerisms."

"So that was Donna, then?" she asked teasingly.

"No, that was me. Of course. Influenced by Donna during the metacrisis," he said, grimacing. "Evidently I still talk like her sometimes." He sounded horrified.

"So mostly you sound like _him_ , but sometimes you sound like Donna, and sometimes you sound like the first you I met?"

"I do?" Now he sounded surprised.

"You didn't know?" Now it was Rose's turn to be surprised. She couldn't believe he didn't realize that. At the stunned look he gave her, she continued. "Yeah, sometimes when you're talking about something or remembering something from when we first met, your accent changes. Makes you sound a bit like you're from the North again."

"Huh," he said with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Not that I mind…" she said in a low, sultry voice. She grabbed him by his blue pinstriped lapels and pulled him close. "After all, that's the you I first fell in love with."

"Yeah?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her.

She nodded, grinning at him flirtatiously. "Definitely."

Grinning back, he dipped his head to kiss her. A voice coming from the stairwell broke them apart.

"Revolting," said Owen Harper.

"You're one to talk, Mr. I-Only-Date-Bimbos-and-Skanks," Toshiko said from her workstation up on the balcony. "I think they're cute."

"Nauseating is more like it," Owen continued. "You two need to get a room, and preferably one not in the Hub. Last time they heard the two of you up in the Plass. Got reports of hauntings up there from all the moaning."

More than a little embarrassed, Rose looked at the Doctor, expecting him to look the same. Instead, he grinned openmouthed at her, looking exceedingly pleased with himself. He waggled his eyebrows at her.

"Shut up," she said to him, and his grin widened, his tongue curling against his teeth in an unconscious imitation of her smile.

Ianto entered the room and flipped the television back on. "You'll all want to see this," he said, and they all gathered in front of the television to watch.

" _And again, our top story tonight comes out of London_ ," the pretty, blonde newsreader was reporting. " _This morning Number 10 announced new policies under the auspices of security measures, policies that have been pushed through Congress in a matter of hours and have just been signed into law_."

The picture changed to a shot in front of the home of the President where an older man was speaking into a microphone, surrounded by reporters.

"Isn't that…" the Doctor asked, looking sharply at Rose.

She nodded, still staring at the screen.

" _In the interests of national security_ ," he was saying, " _all residents will need to be registered in their home precincts. This registration will include name, address, employment records, fingerprinting and a DNA sample to ensure the registration of each individual and to make certain records are not falsified. Anyone refusing to give this information risks deportation or imprisonment. Once registration is complete, a registration card will be issued that cannot be falsified. That card will be used for identification purposes. It must be carried on one's person at all times and must be presented to authorities upon request_."

The screen returned to the newsreader. " _That was Frank Collins, new head of the NIH, regarding the new requirement for all residents to submit to a DNA test. Frank Collins was appointed to head the National Institutes of Health last week by the new president of Great Britain, Brian Greene. As you have just heard, the government is requiring the registration of all individuals_."

The picture changed to a reporter in front of Number 10. " _In order to pass this through so rapidly, President Greene invited select members of the opposing party to a breakfast meeting. Although all opposed the measures when they arrived, all had changed their votes by the end of the meeting. Congresswoman Margaret Blaine, from the congressional district that encompasses most of southern Wales, had this to say_."

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other as the screen changed to a shot of Margaret Blaine being interviewed by a slew of reporters in front of Number 10. " _We believe_ ," she said, " _that the security measures that the President has instituted are necessary and not unduly burdensome. We wholeheartedly support him in this_."

The image changed to one of people queued in neighborhoods and submitting mouth swabs. Many of the women held babies and had small children in tow. In the background, soldiers carrying rifles seemed to be herding people to the registration queue. The newsreader spoke over the images. " _With a speed that is unprecedented in government, the registration of the first wave of people began this afternoon with the residents of Estates in the southern portion of London. The Roberts, Cromwell, Chamberlain and Powell Estates were the first on the list with people being removed from their homes at gunpoint and escorted to the testing stations by the military_."

At the mention of the Powell Estate, the Doctor wrapped his arm around Rose's shoulders and pulled her close. She leaned into him. She hadn't lived on the Powell Estate in a decade, and never in this universe, but its mention sent a chill through her.

The shot changed again, this time to the outside of a school building, and the newsreader continued. " _In a later statement, the government is requiring that schoolchildren be registered in time for the fall term, with the warning that any child that is not registered will not be allowed to attend school and risks being removed from the home and placed in foster care._

_"Demonstrations against the new regulations have already begun across the country._ " The image on the screen shifted to a shot of people holding up signs. " _Large groups of people have already begun demonstrating in front of Number 10 as well as in Whitehall and Westminster, but the government remains unmoved and has stated that the registrations will continue._ "

Ianto leaned over and turned off the television. "After hearing this, I immediately searched the databases to find out more information. They have plans to register everyone in Great Britain, infants to the elderly, in the course of the next four weeks. Obviously they've already started in England, but they expect to begin in Scotland and Wales in a few days."

The Doctor and Rose exchanged worried glances.

"How is that even possible?" Toshiko asked. "There are too many people that would need to be registered for them to be completed in four weeks."

"Local doctors and police are handling the actual registration, but they'll be monitored by a new intelligence organization. Evidently they are forming a new department that will combine all the different intelligence groups together. The NSA, the ISS, the Secret Service, Torchwood, all will come under the same head."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "What's it going to be called?" he asked, although he already suspected he knew the answer.

"It's going to be called UNIT," Ianto answered. "It stands for…"

"Unified Intelligence Taskforce," the Doctor finished. "And I suppose all of these branches of intelligence will be coming under the head of the military?"

"Yes," answered Ianto, surprised. "How did you know?"

"Parallel world," the Doctor said cryptically. "Torchwood there, Torchwood here. UNIT there…"

"UNIT here," Rose finished. "And Torchwood was evil in that world and good here, for the most part anyway. Does that mean…"

"Probably," the Doctor said. "It all balances out. UNIT for the most part was a good organization there. Here, probably not."

"Parallel worlds?" Toshiko asked.

When Rose spoke, she spoke to all of them. "You know that the Doctor and I aren't from here. I came from a different Earth, a parallel one. And so did Mickey. And the Doctor, well, he's from the same universe as we were. And on this other Earth, the one where I grew up, there were a lot of things that were the same as here, but there were a lot of things that were different, too. Back there, we didn't have a president and Congress. We had a prime minister and a parliament. And we didn't have the zeppelins, either."

"Yeah, yeah, we knew all that," Owen interrupted. "So what does that have to do with what's going on now?"

"Well, if the universes are parallel, there are going to be things that are similar between them. Right, Doctor?" When he didn't answer, she turned to him. He was staring off into space, a look of both shock and puzzlement on his face. "Doctor?"

He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, but Rose, it's more than that, isn't it? Parallel worlds diverge. As different decisions are made, parallel worlds grow farther and farther apart. But these two worlds are actually converging." He turned and stared at her. "Oh, why didn't I see this before? We're not just parallel, we're entangled."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I thought entanglement only happened on a microscopic level. I mean, that's why they call it quantum entanglement, yeah?"

"Humans think that it only can happen on a very small scale because that's all they can see, all they can measure. But entanglement can happen on a universal scale as well."

Gwen raised her hand. "For all of us that didn't study physics, which is the rest of us, can you explain what you're talking about?"

"Einstein first started talking about entanglement in a paper in 1935," the Doctor said. At the blank looks on the faces of everyone but Rose, he turned to her. "You do have Einstein here in this universe, don't you?"

"Yeah, but he's not as well known here as in our universe," she answered. "And he didn't have as much of an impact in science here."

"How is that even possible? Einstein was brilliant, an absolute genius, and when I met him he was on the verge of…. Well, I suppose it's possible that I may have helped him a bit over a few of his rough edges..."

"Doctor, focus," Rose said, and he looked slightly irritated at being interrupted. She scowled at him.

"Anyway," he said, stretching out the word as he returned to the topic at hand. "To grossly oversimplify an extremely complex theory, quantum entanglement is basically when two things interact with each other and then are separated, under certain circumstances they behave as if they are still connected. What happens to one seems to affect the other simultaneously. Einstein called it ' _spukhafte Fernwirkung_ ', or 'spooky action at a distance'. But what Time Lords knew is that entanglement can happen also between universes. After two universes touch and interact, they can become entangled so that what happens in one universe seems to be mirrored in the other, even though they have since separated." He demonstrated the concept with his hands, first touching his two fists together, then separating them and vibrating them at the same time.

"And that's what you think has happened to our two universes?" Rose asked. "We've become entangled somehow?"

"Yes, we must have. There are just too many examples of our two universes interacting specifically with one another. First we ended up here with Mickey. Then when Torchwood was messing with the Void, it was connected to the same universe we had visited. And then, with all the infinite universes out there, you were still able to find me. And now with the UNIT business…."

"So are you saying that what happens there is duplicated here and vice versa?" Despite her genius with science and computers, Toshiko was still trying to wrap her mind around some of the concepts.

"Weell," he answered, drawing out the syllable. "No. Not actually. Not directly, anyway. Even on a quantum scale the action wasn't identical. And on a universal scale, the action is echoed rather than the same. Rose," he said, turning to her, "I think our presence here is making the entanglement stronger. When Mickey was here, he was just taking the place of this universe's Ricky. Your mother is taking the place of the parallel Jackie. But you and I don't belong to this universe, in any form. Our very presence is strengthening the link between this one and our own, even more than what would be usual between entangled universes. What happens in our universe reverberates here and vice versa. The Cybermen had been created in our home universe and then were created here. And it was no coincidence that Pete decided to shut down Torchwood One at Canary Wharf after the one in our home universe was destroyed. It's like I've said before, history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

"I thought that was Mark Twain," Rose said suspiciously.

"Where do you think he got it?" he asked with a smirk.

Rose rolled her eyes.

"But the real question is," he said, "what was the interaction that initially caused the entanglement?"

"Wouldn't it have been when we ended up here with Mickey?" Rose asked.

"No. There had to be a crack between our two universes that let us get here in the first place. But there was no reason for there to be a crack then. When Torchwood was playing with the Void, yes, or when Davros set off the Reality Bomb, but not then. In fact, with the way time works, Torchwood playing with the Void could have caused the crack we slipped through," he said to her, and then he addressed everyone. "Most people consider time to be a straight line, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a ball of… a ball of… well… wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff." He groaned loudly and made a face.

Rose raised her eyebrows and tried not to laugh. "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff?"

He scratched the back of his neck and looked sheepish. "Yeah, you'd think I'd be able to come up with a better description than that, wouldn't you?"

"Getting back to what started all of this, what are we going to do about the registration?" Rose asked. "You can't give a DNA sample."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But more importantly, why do they want everyone to provide a sample of his or her DNA? There has to be a reason behind this, more than just for identification purposes. They are looking for something."

"Or someone?" she asked worriedly.

"Or maybe a group of someones," Owen interjected. "People who are genetically compatible."

"Yes, but compatible to what?" the Doctor wondered. No one had an answer.

"But that still doesn't answer the question of how you are going to give a DNA sample," Rose said.

"Let me work on that end of it," Owen said. "We'll figure something out."

"In the meantime, I've got to phone Dad," she said. "Maybe he can tell us what's going on." She pulled her mobile out of her pocket and stepped away for a moment. After a short conversation, she came back and sank down on a chair.

"Did Pete tell you what this was all about?" the Doctor asked.

Rose shook her head. "I didn't ask," she said. "There's more to this than we even know."

"Well then, we'll just go back and sort it," he said with a cheeky grin.

She looked up at him and shook her head again. "We can't," she replied. At her comment, the Doctor stared at her in shock.

"What do you mean?" he asked in disbelief. "Sorting things like this is what we do. You remember. We're Shiver and Shake, Mutt and Jeff, Sir Doctor and Dame Rose. You know, the Stuff of Legend."

She smiled a little sadly. "I know," she said, "but this time we just can't. When I first got here, while we were still sorting the last of the Cybermen that had been left in this world, Mickey had this idea. He got it into his head from some spy movie he had watched that we needed code words in case we were ever captured or something. He came up with a whole list of them for us. We went along with it, but we never needed them, so eventually it became kind of a running joke with us." She paused for a second and then said to him in a serious tone, "Well, Dad just used one with me."

The Doctor sat down next to her. "Rose, tell me what he said," he said. "Tell me _exactly_ what he said, word for word."

Rose closed her eyes to better concentrate on the memory of the conversation.

"I rang his mobile and he didn't answer so I rang his office at Torchwood. When he picked up, I said, 'Hi, Dad,' and then he said, 'Rose, I'm so happy that you called. How's San Francisco?' Then I said, 'It's beautiful. I really love it here.' Then he said, 'Your mother, Tony and I really miss you. As soon as you get back, make sure you come out to the mansion for dinner, and make sure you bring John with you.' I told him I would, and that I missed them all and then I rang off."

She opened her eyes and turned to him. "If everything had been alright, he would have asked how Cardiff was or just how we were doing. But he didn't. He said San Francisco."

"What does San Francisco mean?"

"Before I got trapped here," she told him, "Mickey and Jake traveled all over the world and fought against the Cybermen. The first place they went was Paris, and then they went to Hong Kong and Sydney. Later, they went to San Francisco. Since their time in Paris had gone well, Paris became code for 'everything's all right'. Hong Kong was code for 'be on the alert' because they almost got into trouble by not paying attention to their surroundings. Since Sydney was their last stop on that trip, that one meant 'come home'."

"And what did San Francisco stand for?"

"They never told me what happened in San Francisco. But San Francisco meant that there were problems, big problems, but stay where you were because you'd make them worse by coming home." She looked at him evenly. "The fact that Dad used the code at all means he thinks his phone might be tapped and he doesn't want us to come back. Plus, he called you 'John'. He's _never_ called you John. He's _always_ called you the Doctor. If the mention of San Francisco hadn't convinced me there were problems, that would have." She shook her head. "No, we can't go back blind. We need to know exactly what we're walking into before we try to go back and solve it."

He opened his mouth to speak and she cut him off.

"Doctor, I know how much you just like to blunder into things without a plan," she continued, "but we really can't do that this time. We need more information first."

"Rose, how long was your conversation?" Toshiko asked.

"I dunno, a minute or two?"

"Tosh, it was forty-seven point two seconds," the Doctor told her. At the stares he got, he continued. "Still part Time Lord. Why do you need to know?"

"Anyone with a halfway decent computer and adequate hacking skills can trace a phone call, particularly a mobile call," she answered. "But you have to be prepared for it, and it does take time. If the mobile has GPS, and you are already watching for it, it can be almost instantaneous. If you have to triangulate using the mobile phone towers, it can take a while. Down here in the Hub we have a booster that allows us to use our mobiles, but GPS tracking doesn't work. If anyone was monitoring Director Tyler's telephone, I don't think they'll be able to track Rose's mobile here, no matter who they are. The call wasn't long enough. Even Torchwood wouldn't be able to track it that fast."

"Rose, give me your mobile," the Doctor said with his hand out. "You, too. Everyone. I need all your mobiles. Just stick them on the table there."

Rose handed him her phone, and the Doctor took off the back, pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and began sonicking the electronics inside it. She grinned.

"A bit of jiggery pokery?" she asked.

He winked at her. "You may recall I was first in my class at jiggery pokery." He put her phone back together and handed it to her. Then he picked up another phone at random and began to dismantle it. "Doesn't have universal range in time and space, but you can use it anywhere on the planet and no one will be able to trace it, or even listen in."

Rose turned to the Torchwood staff. "Okay, from now on everyone only uses their mobiles. Don't use the landlines, and don't use anyone else's mobile, either. Gwen," she said, turning to the other woman. "Get Rhys in here to get his mobile fixed as well. If my dad is worried, we all need to be on alert. Code mauve."

As he finished another mobile, the Doctor raised one eyebrow, a small smile playing around his lips.

"Code mauve?" he asked. "Not code red?"

"Yeah," Rose responded with a smirk and a wink. "Everyone knows red's camp."


	20. Chapter 19

That evening, the heat wave finally broke. Rain came down in sheets, dropping the ambient temperature by five degrees in the first few minutes of the storm. Half an hour in, it was fifteen degrees cooler than it had been that afternoon, and the rain showed no sign of abating.

The drive from the Hub back to the farmhouse was silent, the only sounds being the thwap thwap thwap of the windshield wipers, the steady tapping of rain on the roof of Rose's car and the impatient drumming of the Doctor's fingers on the arm rest of the passenger side door. Despite his jovial attitude in front of the others earlier, she could tell he was livid, in that quiet, deadly way he got. Oh, she knew he wasn't angry with her but at the situation. Injustice of any sort made him furious. And to top it off, her stepdad was insisting, albeit covertly, that they not go back and help sort whatever was going on.

And what was worse, for him at any rate, was that he knew she was right. They couldn't just run off to London and solve whatever problems were there. They needed more information. They needed a direction. They needed a plan. And until they had one, they were stuck.

Rose could tell that the forced inactivity was getting to the Doctor, and not just in regards to the current crisis. Working on his projects and helping out at Torchwood Three weren't enough of a distraction for him. She strongly suspected that working for Torchwood in any capacity wouldn't be enough of a challenge either, not long term at any rate.

The Doctor had been on this planet almost two months, and she knew that it was already stifling him. And now that there was a problem, a problem serious enough to warrant his attention and spark his interest, he was essentially being told to bugger off. She was furious with Pete for that.

And her heart broke as she knew every clear night he went out and stared at the stars.

For someone who had been able to travel to any time and whose backyard had been the universe, being trapped in one time, on one planet, in one city, in a house that wasn't bigger on the inside…. It just seemed wrong. It was almost as if he had been sentenced to prison. She just hoped that parole in the form of the new TARDIS came soon.

~oOo~

He sat at a table in his plain blue and white kitchen in Croyden. His elbows rested on its smooth surface and his head in was propped up in his hands as he listened to the day's transmissions from the surveillance equipment he had personally placed in Pete Tyler's Torchwood office. He had done it every day for weeks, and he had yet to learn anything of value. Today's highlights included a discussion of why a shipment of grape Vitex hadn't arrived in Prague on time, a conversation with a mechanic about when his Aston Martin would be out of the shop, and a heated argument with his wife about coming home for tea.

Wow, Jackie Tyler had a mouth on her.

Luckily the computer containing the recordings would automatically skip long periods of silence. If he had had to listen to all of it, he didn't think he'd be able to stand it.

He picked up his mug, drained the rest of his cuppa and then nibbled on some biscuits. He should have bought a coffee at the coffee shop, he thought. Or possibly an espresso. If he was going to listen to all this drivel without falling asleep, he really needed more caffeine.

Pete had a few more conversations with staff about interoffice politics and plumbing problems in the men's loo on the second floor. There was also a telephone call about a long overdue promotion at Vitex. For one of the richest men in the world and the head of one of the most powerful intelligence agencies on the planet, good God, the man was boring.

He got up and made his way to the refrigerator for a bottle of a highly caffeinated version of Vitex, thinking it ironic that he was drinking the energy drink produced by the man he was eavesdropping on. After twisting the plastic cap open, he took a long swig and sat back down at the table.

Suddenly he sat straight in his chair, eyes wide. He quickly fumbled in his pocket for his mobile, nearly knocking over his drink in his rush to retrieve it. Once he finally held it in his hands, he rapidly typed in a text and pressed send. It was only two words. One location.

San Francisco.

~oOo~

Later that night, the Doctor lay in bed, staring at the ceiling and listening to the patter of rain against the bedroom window, one arm wrapped around a very soft, very warm, and very naked Rose Tyler. Sound asleep, she had her head on his shoulder with an arm draped across his chest and one of her legs entangled with his.

As soon as they had gotten home from the Hub, Rose had immediately pulled him upstairs and into their bedroom. Although certain aspects of their relationship were still quite new and he wasn't familiar with all the ins and outs of human sexuality, no pun intended, he strongly suspected that the passion she had demonstrated was as much to distract him from his foul mood as anything else. And it had worked. For a little while at any rate.

Despite Rose having very thoroughly made love to him, and vice versa, he was completely unable to sleep. Like the proverbial broken record, the events of the day ran over and over in his mind. Mass registrations at gunpoint. The formation of UNIT. Pete's use of code words. Registrations. UNIT. Code words. He finally decided to get up and head out to his shop as a distraction from his racing thoughts.

After placing a gentle kiss in her hair, he carefully extricated himself from her embrace, got out of bed and looked for his clothes. They were strewn haphazardly across the room, a visible reminder of how quickly they had been removed. His shirt and his shoes were on the floor next to the bed, but it took him a moment to locate his trousers, which had been tossed across the room and had landed on top of the wardrobe. Due to the low light of the room, he was completely unable to find his pants or one of his socks, so he pulled clean ones out of his chest of drawers.

He dressed quickly and quietly, not wanting to risk waking Rose up, but before he left the room, he paused at the door and turned back to look at her. And smiled. Though still asleep, she had managed to grab his pillow and was now hugging it tightly to herself. Her nose was buried in it, and her soft, blonde hair was a tangled mess strewn across the pillow and hiding her face from view. Beautiful wasn't the correct word for her at the moment. No, adorable fit better. And he felt a fresh wave of love for her.

Not for the first time he wondered what on Earth she saw in him. He felt so… well, blessed wasn't a word he normally used, not in any context, but it was the only one that seemed to fit how he felt about having her in his life. He had lost the TARDIS, he had lost his near immortality, but what he had gained far, far outweighed what he had lost. After they had been separated, he would have given up anything short of the collapse of two universes for just one more day with her. But he now had more than one day; he had the rest of his life.

As he stood there watching her sleep, his thoughts turned to the other him, the full Time Lord him. In some ways the Time Lord Doctor had known what he was giving up by leaving her here with him, yet he knew that in other ways the other Doctor didn't have a clue as to what he was missing. He had never truly lived life on the slow path, with all the boredom and frustration and happiness and joy and love it contained.

For a moment he wondered how the other Doctor was doing. He had had a limited amount of telepathic communication with him when he had first been left with her in Pete's World, always when his other self had been distraught, but they hadn't had any contact in weeks. He hoped that was a good sign, that his other self was more at peace than he had been after losing both Donna and Rose within the span of a few hours, but he strongly suspected it wasn't the case.

But regardless of how his other self was doing, there was nothing he could do about it. He had his own problems to worry about, starting with whatever was going on in London. He reminded himself that he had been planning on going out to the lab, and he headed out the door.

~oOo~

An hour later, the Doctor paced the lab, his hair, jacket and trainers still slightly damp due to his run through the rain from the house to the barn. Restless and frustrated and having found he couldn't concentrate on any of his various projects, he began again to retrace the day's events in his mind.

Things in Great Britain were becoming more and more dangerous. Between the heightened security, the rumors of an alien invasion, the DNA testing for registration and threats of deportation and imprisonment for noncompliance, and now Pete's use of code words to tell them they should lay low and not come back…. It all added up to a nasty situation that threatened to get even nastier.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

Every instinct he had was to get into the thick of this, to sort this, but for the moment his hands were tied. Rose insisted they not run off half-cocked, that they investigate and figure out what the problem was before they ran back to London. But that's not how he operated. He had almost never operated that way. True, some regenerations had been more cautious, more methodical, made plans before they acted, but most just jumped right in with both feet, with no plan on how to sort the problem they faced and sometimes with no real understanding of what the problem even was.

"And it always worked," he said aloud. "Well, I say always… more, usually. Well, I say usually…."

The Doctor ran his hands through his hair in frustration, causing it to stick up every which way, and realized he was talking to himself.

He had always hated feeling powerless, but before there had always been some way to do something about it. Now, however, he felt thwarted at every turn. There were massive problems in London, and Pete obviously didn't want his involvement in sorting them. The changes in Rose's physiology were beginning to scare him, and he had hit a dead end in investigating them due to primitive 21st century medical equipment and a sonic that, if he were honest, only worked half as well as the original. If that. And then there was the TARDIS coral.

The Doctor crossed over to the heavy, glass fish tank that held the branch which had been broken off from his original TARDIS. After carefully removing it from its home, he held it in his hand and examined it. He had tried to recreate the conditions it would have been exposed to on Gallifrey as best he could. The damp sand it was nestled in contained nutrients he had synthesized. Over the tank he had placed a light which simulated the average temperature of his home planet and the wavelengths of the light the planet had received from its binary star system. And since TARDISes needed three sources of energy in the form of nutrients, light along the visible and invisible spectrum, and Vortex energy, it was near the Rift, which should be providing it the additional energy it needed to grow as well.

But it didn't seem to be working. He had to face the fact that there was something seriously wrong with the coral. He had been able to shatterfry the plasmic shell fairly quickly with the use of his sonic, and he had managed to find a dimensional stabilizer in the archives at Torchwood. But shatterfrying the plasmic shell and using the dimensional stabilizer hadn't had any noticeable effect. After weeks of treatments, the coral should be responding. In fact, assuming a TARDIS took two thousand years to grow normally, reducing that time by the power of 59 should allow it to be ready to fly within a year. Even with a conservative estimate of a TARDIS taking four thousand years to be ready, it still should be ready to travel in two years' time. Their TARDIS wouldn't be as big as the old TARDIS had been, not in their lifetimes, but within weeks it should have been as large as the old console room, possibly even large enough to have several rooms.

Instead it had been weeks and, despite the shatterfrying and using the dimensional stabilizer and locating it near the Rift, it hadn't grown at all. And what was worse, he still couldn't sense it telepathically, and that is what should have happened first.

He needed to be honest with himself. It wasn't that it wasn't working. It was that it hadn't worked.

With a heavy heart, he gently placed the coral back in its tank and turned off the grow light, and then he sank into the nearest chair and dropped his head into his hands. That little piece of TARDIS coral had given him hope that he and Rose could travel the stars again. The Doctor in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler, as it should be.

But wouldn't be.

And for a moment he wished the full Time Lord him had never given it to him, had never gotten his hopes up.

He shoved down the pain of his dashed hopes and realized that for the first time since the metacrisis he felt… diminished. Less than. Inferior to his old self and inferior to the full Time Lord Doctor. He knew who he was and he knew who he had been, and for the first time he looked at himself, at this regeneration and this biological metacrisis body, and he felt lacking.

No, he told himself firmly. He wasn't lacking anything. Not in who he was, and not in what he didn't have. Even though he was now part human, he was still the Doctor, and regardless of how he had lived his life in the past, this was his life now. And it was a brilliant life, this life on the slow path with the love of his life. It was something he had only dreamed about. And even without a TARDIS, even without traveling in time, he still had a Time Lord consciousness. He could analyze the data, he could look at the patterns in time, and he could figure out what was going on. This whole business in London was somehow entangled with their home universe and he could solve this. If he could only find the first cause, figure out what had caused the entanglement in the first place, perhaps he could determine how it had shaped events here, how the events were different than they would have been had the entanglement not occurred. That might not lead directly to an answer to what was going on, to the break-in at the mansion, the traitor at Torchwood, and Pete's reluctance to have them return and help, but it was a place to start.

Now with a firm goal in mind, his thoughts turned inward as he traced the possible first causes of the entanglement of the universes. He knew the number was limited. The entanglement of universes, like the entanglement of molecules, always began with the universes touching, being in almost physical contact somehow despite the Void. Although he hadn't been in this universe long, the cause had to have been present in both universes. He should be able to figure it out.

The Doctor began to mentally list every interaction between the universes that he knew about. He immediately discounted their first arrival on Pete's World. As he had told everyone at Torchwood Three earlier, it hadn't begun with the fateful arrival of the TARDIS in Pete's World during the Cybermen mess. They wouldn't have crossed the Void at all had there not been a crack between the universes to begin with.

Could Torchwood playing with the Void before the Battle of Canary Wharf have caused the entanglement? It was a possibility, but an extremely slim one. Normally, entangled universes were caused by cataclysmic events, events on a cosmic scale. The damage Torchwood had caused to the wall between the universes was fairly limited. Not to mention the fact that the weakness between the universes had already been there when they started playing with it; they were just making it worse. Still, he thought with a sigh, it couldn't be entirely rejected.

What about the Reality Bomb? Again, it was a possibility, and again it was a slim one. Although in one timeline it had gone off, creating the holes between universes that Rose had traveled through using the dimension cannon, they had ultimately stopped Davros and time had been rewritten. The cracks caused by the reality bomb had been healed and the stars had returned. The stars had returned….

But not all of them, he remembered suddenly.

Some of them in this universe were still gone.

Wide-eyed, he lunged at his computer. His fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up a star map and a list of the missing stars onto the dual screens. As it had before, the list of the missing stars seemed familiar to him, but he wasn't sure why. His gut told him there was something wrong with it.

As he stared at it, with a start he realized one of the stars on the map was out of place. It was listed as much closer than it was in reality. Once he discovered the mistake, he began to notice others. Some were placed at the wrong distance; others were even listed as the wrong type.

Inwardly bemoaning the state of astrophysics on Pete's World, he began to make corrections. It wasn't enough. He typed again, fixing data and tweaking locations. Still not enough.

He expanded his analysis of the star charts, determined to examine the data for each and every star in the affected area and correct its type and location if necessary. After every adjustment, he stopped to stare at the charts.

The charts were still wrong.

Another adjustment.

Still wrong.

And again.

And again.

Finally after an hour he leaned back in his chair and stared at the screen in shock. He had always told others to keep an open mind, yet when it came down to this, he hadn't even considered the possibility. The answer had been staring him in the face the whole time, and he had just been too blind, too stubborn, or perhaps just too stupid, to see it.

He knew what had caused the destruction of the Kern's homeworld.

He knew why the stars were gone.

He knew what had caused the entanglement.

And he knew who had caused it.

He had.


	21. Chapter 20

Rose woke up in the middle of the night to find the Doctor wasn’t in bed. She wasn’t particularly surprised. Since they had moved to Cardiff, he had always gone to bed at the same time she did, but he usually got up for a few hours in the middle of the night. Most nights he only needed about four hours of sleep, so he spent much of the time while she was asleep either stargazing if the night was clear or working in his lab if it wasn’t. He usually returned to bed in the early hours of the morning so he’d be there when she awoke.

Having gone to bed earlier than usual, Rose was wide awake and decided to go look for him. She did it occasionally; after finding him, they’d often share a midnight snack or she’d coax him back to bed. It took very little effort to coax him back to bed, often just a look, a raised eyebrow and a small smile. Based on the time they had spent in bed before she had fallen asleep, she guessed they might be sharing a snack, but maybe not. For someone who had lived like a monk for most of his long life, this version of the Doctor had a very healthy libido. A very, very healthy libido. And she was extremely happy about it. 

She got out of bed, pulled on some clothes and wandered down to the kitchen. Nope, he wasn’t raiding the refrigerator. And he wasn’t watching telly either. Well, she hadn’t really thought he would be. If the skies had cleared up after the storm earlier, he could possibly be in the garden with a telescope. She slipped on a pair of trainers and went outside.

The air was cooler than it had been in weeks but it was still muggy and the sky was still thick with heavy clouds. He obviously wasn’t stargazing tonight. He had to be in his workshop, she told herself, and she headed in that direction.

Large puddles had formed in the low areas of the driveway, so she walked through the grass to avoid them. Water dampened the bottom of her jeans and seeped through her trainers, making her socks uncomfortably wet. 

As she neared the former barn, she saw light streaming through the small windows on the side closest to the house. Certain she had found him, she crossed to the door, tiptoeing around the puddles in the drive. She called to him as she entered.

"Doctor?" 

But there was no answer.

Unlike it usually was when he was in his lab, the building was silent; the only thing she could hear was the hum of his computer and the overhead lights. Normally there was some sort of noise with whatever he was working on, and when there wasn’t, he was usually whistling or talking to himself or something. 

“Doctor?” she called again. When he still didn't answer, she glanced around in concern.

Everything in his lab looked exactly the same as it always did: the incomplete projects laying on tables and benches; the shelves filled with spare pieces of equipment and alien tech; and the bin that was filled with pop cans, biscuit wrappers, and banana peels.

The Doctor sat frozen in front of the computer, staring at the screen. She had never seen him so still, not in any regeneration she had known. And this Doctor, even more than the others she had known, was almost constantly in motion: walking, running, bouncing on his toes. In those rare instances where he was required to sit, he would drum his fingers on his knee or the armrest of his chair or he’d tap his foot on the floor. Even while he was asleep, he wasn’t completely motionless like this.

It was so out of character it was almost frightening.

Rose walked up to the desk and knelt beside his chair. 

"Doctor, what's wrong?” she asked, laying a hand on his arm.

The Doctor started. “Oh, Rose, sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.” He leaned forward and shut down what he had been doing on the computer. “Nothing,” he said quietly. “It’s nothing.” 

But she knew him too well. 

“No, whatever it is, it’s not nothing,” she argued. 

She took his hand, interlacing their fingers and rubbing his knuckles with her thumb. With her other hand she reached out and caressed his face, tracing along his sideburn and jaw with her fingertips. He closed his eyes and leaned into it.

And then Rose noticed that the grow light that always glowed over the tank that held the TARDIS coral was off.

“Doctor,” she began, “why’d you turn the light off over the TARDIS coral?”

He sighed, so quietly she almost missed it. “Because the TARDIS coral is dead.” 

“What?” she gasped.

“It didn’t work. It couldn’t make the energy transition from that of our original universe to this one. It came from our original TARDIS, and you know the TARDIS couldn’t function with the energy available here.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I couldn’t do it. I tried everything I could think of, but I couldn’t do it. I’m sorry, Rose. I wanted to give you the stars again, and I can’t.” 

She heard the pain in his voice, and she fought the tears that sprang to her eyes. 

“Doctor, I don’t need that,” she said.

“But I know how much you wanted to go with… him,” he said and swallowed hard. “And there’s so much that he could give you that I… can’t. I wanted to give that to you. I know how much you loved when we were traveling.”

“Doctor, listen to me. I loved traveling with you,” she told him. “I loved going to new places and new times. But it never was just about the traveling. It was about being with you. From the very beginning, it’s always been about being with you. I just wanted it to grow for you,” she continued, “so you wouldn’t have lost the stars as well as everything else.”

He stared at her, eyes suspiciously bright, and swallowed thickly. “Oh, Rose Tyler…” he began, but couldn’t finish the thought. Lifting a hand to her face, he caressed her cheek with one finger and bent to kiss her forehead. “I haven’t lost everything. I have you, and that’s more than I could have ever wished for.”

~oOo~

Rose woke up early the next morning to sunlight streaming in the window, hitting her full in the face. She crawled out of bed and, after closing the curtains so the sun wouldn’t wake him, she slowly showered and dressed. At some point she was due to go in to work, but she didn’t need to be there yet and after last night she hated to leave him alone.

Thankfully, the Doctor was still sound asleep. After he had told her the news about the TARDIS coral, she had coaxed him back to bed, where they had talked about their future. He had put a brave face to it, talking about traveling Pete’s World, but she knew he was devastated, and shortly after he had fallen asleep he had had a nightmare, the first one he had had in weeks. Just as hers were finally abating, his seemed to be returning.

Once downstairs, she filled the electric kettle with water but before turning it on she decided to go outside for a few minutes. Before she knew it, she found herself at the Doctor’s workshop.

Rose hesitated at the door. She had never been in it without him being there before. It wasn’t a question of being allowed to be there alone, but it was his inner sanctum, his place to work on his own projects and research, and she respected his privacy even though he had never asked for it. But she felt drawn to the lab this morning. She wanted to see the TARDIS coral for herself, and she wanted to do it alone.

Once inside, Rose crossed to the darkened tank. She took off the lid, reached in and pulled the coral branch out of the moist sand it was half buried in. She gently, gently brushed off the loose sand with her fingertip before pulling her hands out of the tank. 

It was heartbreaking to think that the coral was dead. Not for herself, but for him. The coral was the last, the only link to his past life he had, and it had been his hope for their future. She would do anything, give anything, to give that hope back to him.

As she held the small branch of TARDIS coral, it began to very, very faintly glow with a golden light. She gasped as her heart began to pound and in her shock she almost dropped it. She hadn’t handled the coral since she had first set it up in its tank while they were still at the mansion, and it certainly hadn’t glowed then.

The light faded almost immediately. 

“Please, please, do it again,” Rose begged but it remained dark.

Carrying the coral, she walked over to a chair in a shadowy corner of the room and sat down. She must have wanted it to be alive so much that she had just imagined it glowing, she told herself. That was the only explanation. The sunshine coming in from the window must have bounced off something in here and hit the coral, illuminating it. 

But what if she hadn’t imagined it?

She held it, only inches from her face, close enough that she could see every nook and cranny on its rough surface, and willed it to repeat its performance. Slowly it began to glow again, this time more brightly than the last. And here, in the shadows, there wasn’t any sunshine bouncing off of it. She giggled, not quite believing her eyes.

Almost unable to contain her excitement, she rushed to put it back into its tank. She then raced back to the house, not bothering to close doors on her way, and ran up the stairs to their bedroom. Once there she jumped onto the bed, causing it to bounce up and down a bit. The Doctor groaned and began to stir.

“Doctor, Doctor, wake up!” she said urgently. She grabbed his shoulder and shook it.

He blearily opened one eye.

“Wha’?” he said, yawning. “What is it?” 

“Wake up!” she repeated.

“Blimey, Rose,” he complained. “Give a man a chance to sleep, will you?” He buried his face back in his pillow.

“No, you need to come now,” she told him firmly, jostling his shoulder again. “Consider it payback for all the times you woke me up in the TARDIS.”

Groaning again, he sat up and scrubbed his face with his hands. “You do know I’ve only been asleep two hours, thirty-eight minutes and forty-three seconds, don’t you? Even I need more sleep than that.”

She stared at him impatiently. He was wearing what he had worn to bed, a tee and boxers, his hair was a mess and he was in need of a shave. He was so sexy that way that part of her just wanted to climb back into bed with him, but this was way too important.

“C’mon,” she ordered. She grabbed his trousers and socks off the floor and tossed them to him. “Get dressed and come with me.”

He pulled a face. “Not only do I have to be awake but I have to be dressed, too? What’s going on?”

“You’ll see.”

Once he had finished getting dressed, she grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the house and to the barn. 

“What…” he began.

“Doctor, just wait,” she said, pulling him inside the building. Letting go of his hand, she walked to the tank and picked up the small branch of TARDIS coral. As it had before, it began to shine with a golden light.

Now fully awake, his jaw dropped and his eyes widened in shock.

“What?” he said again.

“It’s, it’s glowing,” Rose said unnecessarily. “When I pick it up, it glows.”

“What?!” he said a third time, his voice tinged with hope.

“Doctor, it’s glowing!”

“I don’t believe it! How? I thought…” His face broke out into a wide grin and she grinned back. Pulling his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, he scanned the coral. After examining the readings, he gingerly took the coral out of her hands and placed it back in its tank. Then he gathered her into a huge hug, picking her up and swinging her around in a circle as they both laughed in happiness.

Then, to Rose’s surprise, he abruptly put her back down on the floor and stuck his nose in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply. Before she could ask him what he was doing, he grabbed her hand, sniffed her palm twice, and then licked it.

“What the hell…” Rose began, but was unable to finish the thought as the Doctor grabbed her face and began to kiss her, thrusting his tongue deep into her mouth. Taken aback at first, after a second she began to kiss him back but was startled when he let go of her, almost pushing her away. He stared at her, brow furrowed and open-mouthed, a look of total shock, and possibly horror, on his face.

“What? No…” He kissed her again and then pushed her away, only to lick his lips. “Oh, you’re kidding me! No…” 

“Okay, what is going on?” she demanded. “Because this is weird, even for you.”

“Artron energy,” the Doctor said, still staring at her in shock. “You, Rose Tyler, are full of artron energy.” He closed his mouth, moving it around as if he were tasting something. He nodded. “Artron, Void, with just a hint of huon radiation, chronal energy and Time Vortex.” He grimaced, running his hand through his hair and beginning to pace. “Why did I miss this? _How_ did I miss this? Why did I not know this? After all this time…” he muttered. 

“Doctor, what is it?” she asked.

“Well, that explains the healing, the lack of scarring,” he said. To Rose’s ears, it sounded like he was still talking to himself. “But I was so sure…. Granted, there _were_ extenuating circumstances, and I _was_ a little distracted at the time, what with regenerating and all…. But still, how could I not notice?” He stopped and rubbed the back of his neck, and then tilted his head and peered at her as if he were examining an intricate puzzle, or possibly an alien creature. “On the other hand, it’s not like we did a lot of kissing back then, hardly any at all, really. Well. Maybe if we had I would have noticed sooner.” He furrowed his brow. “But still, I should have noticed before now. It’s not like we haven’t been doing a lot of kissing lately. Well, more like snogging actually, brilliant, really brilliant snogging, and not _just_ snogging. Snogging and, well, more than snogging. A _lot_ of snogging and more than snogging. Well, I say a lot, more like a whole ton. Well, I say a ton…”

Rose snickered. For a self-proclaimed genius, sometimes he could be so thick. “Perhaps you didn’t notice whatever it is because you were a bit _distracted_ when we were doing all that really brilliant snogging and shagging?” she suggested with a smirk.

He turned and stared at her thoughtfully, apparently considering her words.

“Ah,” he responded after a moment.

“Yeah, ah.” She walked up to him and took his face in her hands.

“Doctor, focus,” she said. “What is it? What did you miss?”

“Rose,” he answered slowly, “you are full of _artron_ energy. _Artron_ energy. Anyone who travels in the TARDIS picks up a tiny bit of it, but with you…. You have _much_ more in you than would be typical for someone who had simply traveled in the TARDIS.”

“Yeah. Okay,” she said. “So what _is_ artron energy?”

The Doctor looked surprised. “Oh. Haven’t I ever told you about artron energy?”

“No,” she told him flatly.

“Oh,” he said, taken aback. “Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Really.”

“Rose, artron energy is one of the types of energy that is in the heart of the TARDIS. It, along with Huon energy and the energy of the Vortex are the primary types of energy that power the TARDIS. Huon energy is extremely rare and toxic. Artron energy, on the other hand, has enormous healing properties. It is one of the components of regeneration energy. In sufficient quantities, it could trigger a regeneration in a Time Lord. In fact, on Gallifrey, if a Time Lord was having trouble regenerating, he was given a large dose of artron energy.”

She stared at him as some pieces of a long unsolved puzzle started falling into place. 

“So,” she said quietly, “when you took the Time Vortex out of me, it was the artron energy that triggered your regeneration?”

He looked at her, considering how to answer. “Yes,” he said finally, “that’s ultimately what caused the regeneration. Well, at least it’s why it happened so quickly after I took the Vortex out of you. Taking the Vortex out of you would have caused me to regenerate, but the artron energy made it happen almost immediately.”

“And you knew that would happen, didn’t you? You knew that when you took the Time Vortex out of me it would trigger your regeneration.”

“Yes.”

“And you did it anyway.”

“Yes.” When she stared at him, he continued. “I couldn’t lose you. I had thought you had been killed by the Anne Droid on the Game Station, and then when I found out you weren’t …. That’s why I sent you home. To keep you safe. I was certain you would die if you stayed with me. And then you came back and saved me….” He swallowed thickly. “I couldn’t lose you. Not if there were something I could do about it. And I’d do it again.”

“But… but now you can’t regenerate anymore.”

He looked at her evenly and didn’t reply.

Her eyes widened. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “No. I won’t let you.”

He shook his head and looked troubled. “Rose, it’s not a possibility anymore. You’ve been living with this for so long I don’t know what it could do to you even if I tried. It certainly doesn’t appear to be hurting you, quite the reverse in fact.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your health. Your ability to heal. The fact that you don’t have any damage to your chromosomes even though you used the dimension cannon so much….” His voice trailed off and he stared at her. “The dimension cannon….” He said it like a revelation.

“I thought you said the dimension cannon couldn’t do this. Remember? I asked you about it that first time we came to Cardiff together in this universe. You told me that it couldn’t cause this.”

“It can’t. And it didn’t. The dimension cannon would cause chromosomal damage, not heal it.”

“Then what….” 

“The artron energy had to have been in your body ever since you became Bad Wolf,” he said. “I thought I got it all out when I took the Vortex out of you, but I must have missed some. Over the years it must have been lying dormant in your body until you started using the dimension cannon. The stress of using it must have somehow activated the artron energy and increased your body’s ability to heal itself. Kind of like the way antibodies work in your body when you get exposed to a virus. The stress of being exposed to a virus triggers the production of antibodies which then assists in your body’s ability to identify and attack the virus.”

“So the stress of using the dimension cannon…” she said.

“Triggered the artron energy to activate in your system and helped your own body to heal you,” he finished.

She was silent for a few moments while she pondered what he had told her. 

“Doctor,” she said eventually, “if all this artron energy in me is making me heal like this, is that gonna make me… like Jack?”

“How do you mean?” he asked.

“You know,” she said hesitantly, “not… not able to die.”

“Oh!” He shook his head. “No.”

“Are you… sure?”

“Absolutely sure.”

“Doctor, you’ve been wrong before about things,” she reminded him. “How do you know you’re not wrong about this?”

“Rose, Jack is immortal. A fixed point in time and space. To a Time Lord, he literally looks and feels… wrong. I eventually got used to it, but when I first saw him after he became immortal, he made my skin crawl. Believe me, I would know if you were like Jack.” 

“Well, that’s a relief,” she said. Her body relaxed, releasing a tension she didn’t realize she had been holding in. “So what do we do now?” 

“There’s nothing to do,” the Doctor replied. “If it was going to hurt you it would have done so by now. And trying to take it out would probably do more harm than good.”

“What about the TARDIS coral?” she asked.

“Somehow the coral was able to respond to the artron energy in you when it wasn’t able to respond to any of the energies in this universe.” He looked at her thoughtfully. “It must be because you have both the energy from our home universe and this universe in you. Somehow the combination was able to bridge the gap for the TARDIS coral and it was able to absorb it.” 

Slowly he grinned at her and she grinned back. 

“Doctor, it’s still alive.”

“I know!” he said excitedly. He picked her up again and twirled her around, and this time when he set her down, he kissed her properly.


	22. Chapter 21

Pete Tyler sat on the long sofa in his study, a whiskey in one hand, staring at the television on the far wall which was currently broadcasting the national news. The government’s decision to register everyone’s DNA had sparked riots all over the country, particularly in London. Stores had been vandalized, cars had been firebombed, and the interaction between the rioters and the new UNIT troops had become deadly with at least a score of people killed. President Greene had gone on television to announce even more strict security measures to put an end to the violence. There were now to be curfews for everyone from ten at night until five in the morning. The only people allowed on the street during those hours were the police, medical personnel, and members of UNIT.

Although Torchwood was to be brought into the fold, it hadn’t officially happened yet. Becoming a part of UNIT was scheduled to happen at the end of the week, and Pete wondered if that meant he’d be out of a job. Worse things could happen for him personally, but if he were fired, he felt that it would signal even worse changes for the country politically. It wasn’t hubris; he didn’t believe he was the only one who could lead Torchwood. Jake could easily do it, or Rose. No, Pete just believed that Greene would likely put someone in charge of the organization who would go along with all of the current administration’s policies. Frighteningly dangerous policies.

This whole situation harkened back to the state Great Britain was in just prior to John Lumic’s introduction of the Cybermen: the registrations, the curfews, the riots. Through some anonymous sources, he had begun to hear rumors of random police searches on the horizon and even the possibility of labor camps.

His long experience with Torchwood, and the Preachers before it, had his instincts on high alert. This business with the government coming on the heels of the break-in of the mansion and the planting of alien surveillance equipment in his study… he was certain it was related but he didn’t know how.

Pete was grateful for the heads up he had received from Harriet Jones on some of Greene’s plans before she had left office. She hadn’t known everything that was going on, but she had told him everything she had heard. And it was enough; it had given him time to prepare for what was happening now. He had planned on making Rose the head of Torchwood Three regardless of the current political situation, but with the warnings President Jones had given him he had been able to take measures to hide her at the same time. And the information had led him to place Jake in Torchwood Two as well. 

Thank goodness Jake and Rose were already out of London, he thought. With them heading separate branches of Torchwood, UNIT wouldn’t be able to take complete control of the organization. And no one outside of Cardiff knew that Rose was heading Torchwood Three. The staff records still showed Gwen Williams as the head of Torchwood in Cardiff.

He drained the rest of his drink and got up to pour himself another one. He was torn. On the one hand, with the increasingly dangerous situation in London, he wanted Jackie and Tony out of here. On the other, would they truly be safe anywhere else? He wasn’t sure. Their safety was his highest priority.

He had to think of something.

~oOo~

Over the course of the next several days, the Doctor spent almost all his waking hours working on the TARDIS coral.

Rose had experimented with holding it and concentrating on feeding it energy, and it had responded better than either of them had hoped. Within an hour the Doctor had begun to sense it telepathically, and within three it had grown too large for its tank.

“It’s growing even faster than Donna predicted,” the Doctor had told her. “The direct infusion of energy from you has given it a bit of a jumpstart. Go ahead and hold her if you like. I want her to bond with you as much as with me. But from here on out you need to be careful not to allow her to take any more of your artron energy; we don’t know what it could do to you.”

Overnight the small branch shot up to be as tall and thin as a sapling, somewhat resembling one of the coral struts from the control room of the original TARDIS. They took it out to the woods behind the house and planted it in the middle of a clearing that was surrounded by a stand of oak trees.

Despite the Doctor’s initial excitement over the baby TARDIS, Rose knew that something was still wrong. They were both still studying the problems in London, all the Torchwood staff were, and they weren’t making any progress on it, but Rose suspected it was more than that. Occasionally his eyes would get a haunted look, one he quickly hid if he realized she was looking at him. And his nightmares had returned in full force. He began to mutter in his sleep, and occasionally cry out in anguish, but when she questioned him about it, he always told her he didn’t remember the dreams. She couldn’t call him on it though; after all, she hadn’t told him the subject of her nightmares either.

She didn’t know how to help him with them directly, so she did the only thing she could think of. Every morning while he was showering and dressing, she snuck out to the woods and visited the coral. She would talk to it and touch it to try and bond with it as the Doctor had suggested, but primarily she went to try and give it more energy. If she concentrated while she touched it, it would begin to glow. She knew she was taking a risk and that the Doctor would be angry if he knew, but it was a risk she was willing to take if it meant that he could get back to the stars sooner.

With her feeding it energy, every morning the new TARDIS would be significantly bigger; the day after they had planted it, it had towered over her head. Shortly after that it had sent up secondary shoots around the main branch. This morning, almost a week after they had discovered the coral was still alive, she expected to see it larger still, perhaps with more secondary shoots, but essentially looking the same.

As always, she followed the path that led to the baby TARDIS. Even after only a few short days of them walking back and forth, the path had already become well worn. In fact, she had traveled it so often by now that she thought she’d be able to make the short journey with her eyes closed. But this time, when she got to the end of the path, all she could find was trees. She couldn’t find the TARDIS at all.

For a moment she thought she had become lost. The area looked right but somehow different at the same time, and she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly seemed different. Perhaps she had accidently strayed off the path and ended up in a different part of the woods. But that made no sense, she told herself. All the grass in the clearing where she now stood had been trampled from them walking back and forth. 

“Where could it be?” she muttered under her breath. 

Rose spent a few minutes searching the surrounding area, but to no avail. The baby TARDIS didn’t appear to be anywhere. She widened her search, eventually covering almost an acre of ground before she gave up. Hurrying back to the house, she burst into the kitchen to find the Doctor was sitting at the table, eating a banana muffin and drinking a mug of tea, still in his striped pyjamas and dark blue dressing gown. He looked up at her in surprise.

“Where were you?” he asked. “I came down to have breakfast with you, and you were gone. I thought you had already left for work.”

“It’s not there!” she said urgently, as if he hadn’t spoken. 

“What’s not there?” 

“The TARDIS. I went out to check on her this morning, and I couldn’t find her.”

His face split into a delighted grin, and he stood up so quickly that he almost knocked his chair over. “Oh, she’s ahead of schedule. That energy you gave her the other day must have given her a real boost. She shouldn’t be able to do this for at least another month. Two even.”

“Do what?” Rose asked.

“Come on,” he said, ignoring her question. He grabbed her hand and pulled her outside.

They rushed down the path to the clearing where she had been only minutes before. His grin widened, with his tongue curling to touch the back of his teeth, as he gazed in wonder at a tall oak tree in the center of the clearing.

“Oh, you clever thing,” he said. “Oh, you beautiful, beautiful girl. You knew right what to do, didn’t you?”

“Doctor, what are you talking about?” Rose asked. “Who are you talking to?”

“The TARDIS,” he replied.

“The TARDIS? Where is she?”

“Right there in front of you!” The Doctor gestured at the tree in front of them. Letting go of Rose, he walked around and around it, touching its bark, looking up into its branches, examining its roots. He pulled a leaf off the tree, smelled it and licked it. “Oh, you are clever, old girl. But I can’t call you old girl, can I? Young girl? Nah, that doesn’t sound right. We’ll think of something,” he said, patting the trunk affectionately. “Now where’s the door…”

“Doctor, this is the TARDIS?” Rose asked in disbelief. “She’s not a police box.”

“When TARDISes first grow, they take on a shape that blends them into their surroundings,” he told her without taking his eyes off the trunk of the tree in front of him. “Normally on Gallifrey, it would be in the shape of a simple grey cabinet, but it could be other things depending on where they were when they gained the ability to change shape. They’d stay that way forever, in whatever form they initially took, unless they had a chameleon circuit put in. Then they’d be able to alter their appearance every time they moved. Now where would you have hidden it?” 

He ran his hands along the bark at chest level. It felt exactly like the bark of a mature oak tree, dry and a bit rough, until it didn’t. “Oh, there it is.” His eyes widened when he saw what was under his fingertips. “Oh, you clever, clever thing. C’mere, Rose.”

She walked up to stand next to him.

“Look at that,” he said proudly, and she stared at where he was pointing. There was a heart carved into the trunk of the tree, and in the center of the heart were the words _The Doctor and Rose Tyler_. They looked at each other and giggled. When he reached out and touched the center of the heart, the door swung open.

They glanced at each other.

“Do we go in?” she asked with a grin.

“Oh yes!” he said emphatically. “Ready?”

Rose bit her lower lip and nodded.

They walked in and gaped, turning to stare around them. It was only a fraction of the size of the old console room. In fact, it was smaller than the kitchen in the farmhouse. The ceiling didn’t tower overhead, it didn’t have different levels, and there was no central console.

They turned to each other, wide smiles on their faces.

“It’s bigger on the inside!” they shouted together. He grabbed her in a tight hug as they laughed.

After he let go of her, he wandered around gently touching the yellowish-orange coral that made up the TARDIS’s interior walls. “Reminds me a bit of the first console room I used, size-wise at any rate. Wasn’t anything like this, though. It was all modern and white, with flashing lights and a big screen on the wall. The TARDIS was originally in for repairs, and the powers that be decided to decommission her rather than fix her.” 

Rose smiled. “And so you nicked her.” 

“I _borrowed_ her,” he corrected. 

The Doctor traced the edge of a roundel with a fingertip. “I nicked her,” he admitted quietly, glancing at her over his shoulder. He smiled at the memory. He turned away from her again before he continued. 

“Y’know,” he said without looking at her, “when I walked out of the TARDIS, when we were on the beach in Norway, I thought that’s it. No more traveling, no more stars. I didn’t think I’d ever be in a TARDIS again. And even when he gave me the coral, I wasn’t sure it would work. And now….” His voice wavered slightly and he sniffed.

He was silent for several long moments. She crossed over to him, wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and rested her head against his back.

“And now?” she asked softly.

He turned in her arms. Cupping her chin, he tilted her face up to his and looked deeply into her eyes. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled at her.

“Now, it’s the Doctor in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler,” he said. “As it should be.”  
 


	23. Chapter 22

Late that morning, the Hub was almost unnaturally quiet. Usually if the staff wasn't out in the field, there was some sort of activity: conversations, phone calls, something. Uncomfortably pregnant, Gwen had decided to stay home for a change since Rhys was back from his road trip. Meanwhile, Toshiko was working on her computer, Owen was cleaning up the medbay after a particularly messy autopsy, Rose was trying to make some sense out of the mess on her desk, and the Doctor was off in the storage cupboards somewhere in the basement, scavenging for useful bits of alien tech for the TARDIS console. The only one who was unaccounted for was Ianto Jones, but that didn't last for long.

"I've got one," he called as he entered the Hub.

"You're late." Owen's voice echoed up from the medbay.

"Shut it, Owen," Ianto replied automatically.

"You've actually got one? Bring it here," Toshiko called from her workstation on the balcony.

Ianto climbed the short flight of stairs, sat down on a stool next to her and handed her a small plastic card.

"I need that back," he told her. "Today. And in one piece."

Tosh held it up to the light. She frowned as she examined it.

"Get Rose," she ordered.

Ianto rolled his eyes but got up to get her. He hated being bossed around, but as low man on the totem pole, he seemed to be on the receiving end of orders from everyone at Torchwood Three. Toshiko rarely told him what to do, however, so he usually didn't mind helping her out.

"What is it, Tosh?" Rose asked, descending the stairs from her office and joining her at her computer.

The other woman handed her the card. "That's one of the new identification cards the government is issuing to everyone after their DNA testing. It shouldn't be possible, but somehow they are managing to produce them while you wait." She sounded incredulous.

Rose stared at it, turning it over and over in her hands. "Where'd you get this?"

"It's my sister's," Ianto answered from behind her. "She went in early this morning. I persuaded her to lend it to me for a few hours."

"Tosh, can you replicate this?" she asked, handing it back.

Toshiko shook her head. "No. I can make all sorts of false IDs, but this is something new. I can't do this one. In fact, I doubt Torchwood Four could do it either."

"Ianto, get the Doctor. He's down rummaging through the storage area," Rose ordered. Ianto sighed audibly as he turned towards the stairs. Her mouth twisted into a small grin. "Please?"

"Thank you, Rose," he replied, turning back to her and inclining his head. "I would be delighted to." As he headed down the stairs, the women chuckled as they heard him mutter, "About time someone had some manners around here."

When the Doctor joined them a few minutes later, Rose immediately handed him the registration card. "Is there any way you can duplicate this?"

He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and put them on before scrutinizing the card.

"Ianto, do you have a magnifying glass?" he asked after a moment, and Ianto pulled one out of a nearby drawer.

The Doctor peered through it to examine the card in detail. "Not sure what it's made of. Almost looks like plexiglass, but not quite. Imbedded electronics, holographic images of the individual and the fingerprint of her right index finger, looks like… a miniature imprinting of the results of the DNA swab…." He turned it over in his hand and sighed heavily. "No, I can't," he said. He shoved his glasses back in his pocket and rubbed one eye in irritation. "Would have been a piece of cake with the TARDIS, but ours is just not up to anything like this and won't be for months."

"Well, Dad was insistent that no one know we're here," she said. "Maybe we can just get away with not going."

"You won't be able to do that," Ianto told her. "They are instituting random searches. After the deadline, if you don't have one of those on you, you risk imprisonment."

"I could give you false identification so that you could pass for someone else during the registration process," Toshiko told them. "It's just a matter of finding someone who physically resembles you, who used to live here, and who isn't here anymore because they moved or died or something."

"That would work for me," Rose said. "But that wouldn't work for the Doctor. He can't give a DNA sample."

Owen climbed up to the balcony to join them. "I may have a way around that."

~oOo~

Sitting at his desk in his Torchwood office, Pete Tyler stared at his computer screen and watched the latest news on the continuing violence in London. He _had_ to make a plan to get Jackie and Tony out of the city, he told himself. He had a few ideas, but all of them were risky, and all of them relied on others to keep them safe. But with the Doctor, Rose, Jake and Mickey gone, he wasn't sure who he could trust.

His mind ran through everyone he knew: friends, neighbors and colleagues at both Torchwood and Vitex. Other than Jackie, Tony and Rose, he had essentially no family. He had a distant cousin in Scotland and another in Canada, but he hadn't seen either of them in decades. With his work schedule, he hadn't made many friends and his neighbors were virtual strangers to him. Until the break-in, he would normally have relied on someone at Torchwood with this, but now there was no one.

Or was there?

Yes, there actually was someone. There was someone he didn't know well but Rose, Jackie and the Doctor all trusted. And whom he was certain wasn't involved in any of this mess. But how to contact her?

Pete sat there a moment, considering the possibilities. Not by mobile since it was probably being monitored. The same went for email. And ever since he had been followed, he was wary of arranging any sort of meet. No, he needed a legitimate reason to contact her.

And then it occurred to him that there was one, there was a reason to see her that no one would question. But how to do it?

He opened the center drawer of his desk. Pens, pencils, pads of paper… But nothing sharp. No scissors, no letter opener, not even a stapler.

Pursing his lips, he looked around the small room. Book shelves, a couple of extra chairs, a calendar and a bulletin board filled with snapshots and a drawing Tony made. And then his eyes landed on the filing cabinet in the corner. He remembered one of the drawers had a jagged edge. That would do.

Having finally made a decision, he grabbed a small pad of paper out of a drawer, scribbled out a short note and put it in one of the pockets of his trousers. Then he got up and, after hanging his suit jacket on the back of his chair and rolling up his sleeves, walked over to the filing cabinet. Gritting his teeth, he opened the drawer and, in one quick move, ran the back of his left arm across the sharp metal. As blood welled up from the cut he had made, he winced at the momentary pain. He grabbed a handkerchief out of his other pocket and held it on the wound.

"Dammit," he swore loudly and Todd ran into the room.

"What's wrong, Director?"

"Oh, I accidentally cut myself on the file cabinet. I need to head down to the infirmary. Will you ring Dr. Jones and let her know I'm on my way?"

"Of course, Director," Todd replied and headed to his desk to make the call.

Pete grinned.

~oOo~

Dr. Martha Jones walked down the hall to the loo near her office, clutching a small piece of paper in her hand and thinking about the encounter she had just had with Director Tyler. It had seemed routine at first; he had come to the infirmary to have her treat a scratch he had on his arm. The wound had seemed fairly deep for an accidental scratch, but not unusually so. She had followed the cleaning and bandaging of it with a tetanus shot while they had engaged in the usual chitchat about family and television shows. It wasn't until he slipped the paper into the palm of her hand as he left that she realized anything was unusual.

After entering the ladies' room, she quickly checked to see if there was anyone else there. There was no one at the sinks and no feet visible under the doors of the stalls. After locking herself in the one at the far end, she opened the slip of paper in her hand and quickly read it. She raised her eyebrows. It seemed all very James Bond. _Director Tyler is lucky I have an eidetic memory_ , she thought with a wry grin.

Following the instructions on the paper, she flushed it down the toilet before returning to her office.

~oOo~

Toshiko Sato took a deep breath before she sauntered into the dimly lit lounge in the lobby of a hotel off Mermaid Quay. It was still early, so there were few other customers in the place and only one at the bar, a heavyset balding man in his mid-thirties wearing a poorly fitting grey suit and tie. He was sitting at one end, nursing a drink and eating some sort of snack out of a bowl placed nearby. Crossing to the bar herself, she smiled at him before sitting down somewhere in the center. She placed one elbow on the arm of her barstool and casually rested her weight on it.

The bartender, a tall, blonde woman in a white blouse and a black waistcoat and tie, came over to take her order.

"Appletini, please," she requested. Running her fingers through her thick, black hair to fluff it a bit, she smiled again at the man sitting at the end of the bar. The bartender came back with a bright green drink in a tall martini glass. Surreptitiously Tosh took a small pill out of her pocketbook, a Torchwood-made anti-intoxication drug, and put it in her mouth before picking up her drink and taking a sip.

"Mmm," she said in appreciation, putting her glass back down on the bar. "Oh, that's good. I've been needing that all day."

"Rough day?" the man at the end of the bar asked.

"Oh, the worst," she said, taking another sip of the almost fluorescent green drink.

He picked up his drink, something that looked like two fingers of scotch, and rounded the bar to sit next to her.

"I work in IT," Tosh continued, "and my boss was on my back all day."

"He sounds like a real piece of work," he said.

"She," Tosh responded, adding the smallest amount of irritation to her voice. "And she puts the 'b' in bitch."

"Sorry to hear that," he said. "By the way I'm Simon. Simon Hill."

"Michiko, Michiko Imai," Toshiko said. "So what do you do, Simon?"

"I'm a doctor. I work over at A & E at the hospital. Well, normally at any rate," he said. "They've farmed me out to deal with this DNA testing mess."

"Oh, yeah," she said. "So you're working on that?"

He nodded. "I don't like it, but I don't have much choice, really. The way things are going, if I don't do it, I could be arrested."

"Boy, that's rough," she said, finishing the end of her drink. "Is it warm in here?" she asked, pulling at the collar of her red, silk blouse with one finger. She took off her jacket and hung it on the back of her chair and then fanned herself with her hand. Her blouse had two buttons unbuttoned, and she unbuttoned a third, revealing the tiniest peak of her black lace bra underneath. Simon's eyes widened, and he cleared his throat.

"I'm going to have another scotch. Can I get you another… whatever that is, Michiko?" Simon asked.

Toshiko smiled at him. "Appletini," she said, "and I'd love another."

An hour and a half later, the lounge had begun to fill up as the after-work crowd came in. Meanwhile, Simon and Toshiko were still sitting at the bar as he regaled her with stories from the hospital.

"And then I said to her, I know he's like a member of your family, but you still can't bring a goat into A & E!" He laughed loudly at his own joke, making the other customers nearby turn and stare at them.

Toshiko laughed politely and wished she were anywhere else than there. Like on a weevil hunt or maybe at one of Owen's alien autopsies.

Simon stood up abruptly. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be right back. Now don't you go anywhere," he said with a wink. She smiled at him and gave him a little wave before he turned and headed towards the men's toilet.

As soon as he was out of sight, her smile faded and she rolled her eyes. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a small vial of a colorless liquid and poured it into his drink. She then pulled out her mobile. "Give me about 15 more minutes and then call me. Thanks." She quickly stowed her mobile back in her purse, just in time for Simon to return.

"So, where were we?" he asked, hefting himself back onto the barstool next to her. She plastered a false smile on her face while inwardly groaning.

"You were telling me something about a goat?"

~oOo~

"I'm so sorry," Toshiko said expressively, closing her mobile. "That was my mother. She thinks she's coming down with the flu, and she needs me to stop by tonight. Maybe we could take a rain check on dinner."

Simon nodded and yawned. "Perhaps that would be a good idea," he said. "I'm developing a bad headache, and for some reason I can hardly keep my eyes open."

"Well, you'd better get home, then," she suggested. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Simon. Maybe we can do it again sometime."

He got up and walked out the door, staggering a bit as he did so. As soon as she was sure he was gone, Toshiko sighed in relief.

"Thank God that's over," she said under her breath.

~oOo~

Jake sat in front of his computer at a long wooden table in the main room at Torchwood Two. He had an office; he just preferred to work in common areas rather than in the relative isolation of a separate room. Not that it mattered as there was only one other person in the building, and she was wearing headphones and listening to music on her EPod.

The Scotland branch of Torchwood was aptly, and unoriginally, nicknamed "The Pub" as it was located in an abandoned pub on the outskirts of Glasgow. Set back from the street and a distance away from the surrounding buildings, it was small compared to Cardiff's Hub and was nothing compared to sprawling compound of Torchwood Four or the nearly abandoned Torchwood One at Canary Wharf. But it was quiet and unobtrusive and suited the staff of Torchwood Two as well as the Hub did for the crew in Cardiff and the former factory did for Torchwood's London employees.

Jake, however, having just arrived in Scotland a week earlier, was feeling a bit of culture shock. And a little homesick. Although Glasgow was a relatively big city, well, big by Scotland's standards at any rate, it was nothing compared to London. Jake had been traveling for quite a while on Torchwood business, most recently to America, and practically as soon as he got back Pete sent him up here. He had been looking forward to spending a little time in his hometown before having to travel again, but that was Torchwood for you, he thought.

And although Jake understood everyone, the accents took a bit to get used to. It wasn't as bad as dealing with Americans, though. Some of them he couldn't understand at all. But he expected that when he went there. After all, they were Americans. Foreigners. And although Scotland was a separate country, he didn't think of it as foreign.

No, the real problem with Glasgow was the boredom. Unlike in London and in Cardiff, there weren't a lot of aliens and certainly no invasions. And unlike Cardiff, where he had been assigned for a year, there weren't even any staffing problems. Not that he really had a staff. There were only two other staff members in Torchwood Two. Audrey Griffith, a girl still in her late teens, was listed as a cleaning woman but also did anything else that needed doing in the office, including filing and making coffee. Martin Douglas, the field agent, did the initial investigation of any rumors of mysterious happenings in the country. Typically they amounted to nothing. In those rare cases where there was a real problem, Pete usually sent someone up from London to deal with it.

Jake had sent Martin out to investigate strange lights that had been reported on the moor. It was pointless, really. Probably just bored kids getting wasted, but they had to check it out anyway. _At least Martin has something interesting to do for the next couple of days_ , Jake had thought at the time.

Meanwhile Audrey was mopping the floor for the fourth time that week, not because it needed it, but just because she had nothing better to do.

Jake stared at the screen in front of him, trying to figure out who the traitor was in Torchwood Four. There must be something, he told himself, that could tie the break-in at the mansion to whoever was working with Lisa Hallett. It just was beyond the realm of belief to think that they weren't related.

If he just hit it hard enough, went through all the connections again, he was sure he could find something.

~oOo~

At the flimsy desk in a cheap motel a few blocks away from Torchwood Two, a man sat working on a slim, laptop computer. He was in his early thirties and tall and muscular; he looked like a bodybuilder or perhaps a player for an American football team.

A woman in her early twenties sat on one of the two beds in the room, remote control in hand, flipping through the stations on the television. The motel only received local stations, and at the moment they were only broadcasting local news. She exhaled loudly in frustration and threw the remote on the bed next to her. It bounced once before it came to rest.

"Bloody Glasgow," she cursed. "I'm missing all my shows."

"You watch too much telly anyway," the man responded. "S'not good for you."

"What the hell do you care?" she asked. "You're not my father." She got up and restlessly paced the room. "I am so bored! There must be a pub around here somewhere. You wanna go?"

"Sure. I'm almost done. Just a tiny bit more tweaking… There," he said, standing up. "Now, even when we aren't here, I'll be able to track everything Jake Simmonds does on his computer."


	24. Chapter 23

_“Have you been able to find them yet?”_

“No,” he said into his mobile. “We’ve searched and searched San Francisco, and John Smith and Rose Tyler don’t appear to be there.”

_“Did it occur to you that they may be traveling under assumed names?”_

He rolled his eyes. “They undoubtedly are, but we haven’t been able to discover the names they might be using. Nor have we been able to find anyone matching their descriptions on any zeppelin flights in or out of San Francisco, nor have we been able to find anyone who remembers seeing them at any of the hotels.”

The other groaned. _“It’s a city, dammit. There are a million people there. You couldn’t possibly have spoken to everyone.”_

“I know my job,” he said sharply. “And they probably aren’t even there. We have no proof that they’ve even left Great Britain.”

_“If they are still here, they have to be living somewhere, and spending money. And I’m guessing the money that they are spending is Pete Tyler’s.”_

“You’re talking about hiring a forensic accountant?”

_“Not hiring. We have one in our organization already. She should be able to determine where every penny Tyler is spending is going.”_

“If you want to find them,” he said, “all we really need to do is to ask the one person who knows for certain where they are. And has a big mouth.”

He heard a loud groan come over the speaker of his mobile.

_“Alright. We’ll do both. But we’ll have to find her somewhere out in the open. Make it look like a natural encounter. I don’t want Jackie Tyler to suspect anything.”_

~oOo~

The next morning the Doctor and Rose were sitting with the other Torchwood employees in a makeshift sitting area in the atrium of the Hub. There were a couple of armchairs, a beat up coffee table, and an ancient sofa that someone had dragged into the room at least a decade earlier. The chairs looked stained and worn, but the brown floral fabric of the sofa had the advantage of hiding the many spills it had received over the years. All of the furniture looked like it belonged in the landfill, and rumors were that that’s where it had all come from originally.

The Doctor and Rose had swung by the local bakery on the way to work and now, while they were waiting for Owen’s mobile to ring, they were all sharing a breakfast of scones and the coffee Ianto had made. Still they were all surprised when, instead of the normal telephone ring they expected, the strains of _Baby Got Back_ began to play loudly. As he reached into his pocket for his phone, he snickered at the eye rolls he received.

“Hello,” he said into his mobile. “Oh, Simon. What can I do for you? You’re ill, did you say? Well, that’s too bad.” He looked pointedly at the Doctor and Rose while he spoke. “Yeah, I can help you out. I’ll be right there.” He rang off and shoved the phone back into his pocket. 

“Seems Tosh here actually did what she was supposed to last night,” he told them. “Our friend Simon has come down with what he thinks is a case of influenza and he can’t do the DNA sampling today. He tried to get someone to cover for him, but for some reason he wasn’t able to reach anyone but me.” He smirked.

“Knock it off, Owen,” Toshiko said, her irritation with him obvious in her voice. “I’m the one who did all the work. I had to flirt with him for almost two hours, I had to drug him without him noticing, and I had to block all calls out on his mobile except to you.”

“Yeah, but it was my idea,” Owen countered. “And yours was the easy part. I’ve got the difficult bit. If they catch me playing with the DNA sampling, I could be sent to prison. Or worse.”

~oOo~

Later that morning in the local police department, in a room set aside for the purpose, Dr. Owen Harper was taking mouth swabs of Cardiff residents. Nearby, a police officer was doing fingerprint scans. Immediately outside the door, a police officer sat at a small table checking the current IDs of those waiting to be registered. Other officers were standing around, attempting to keep things orderly.

The hallway was filled with people; teenagers, elderly, parents with children, people of all ages and from all walks of life were crowded into the small space. It almost appeared as if everyone in southern Wales was in the queue that morning. It stretched down the hall, down a flight of stairs, out the door and along the pavement into the car park. 

Ianto Jones stood near the entrance to the testing room, with the Doctor standing immediately behind him. Meanwhile the other members of Torchwood Three were randomly scattered along the queue. Rose stood several people behind the Doctor. Further down was Gwen, and even further down than that, near the top of the stairwell, was Toshiko. 

The Doctor was restless, but unlike normal, he was trying to maintain a low profile by not chatting with the other people around him. He had even tried to dress more conservatively than usual, wearing his brown pinstriped suit with a collared shirt and a tie. It surprised him how uncomfortable his old look now was to him. He much preferred non-collared shirts, tees or even jumpers with his blue pinstripes. Differences due to a partial regeneration, he told himself.

There was a commotion at the entrance to the building and he, along with everyone else, turned to look. He raised an eyebrow when he saw what was causing it. UNIT soldiers had entered the building. 

Oh, he despised all this business. The registrations were something he should be fighting, not taking part in. But there was nothing to be done… yet. They were still waiting on more information from Pete and Jake, and he knew they needed to bide their time. But biding his time wasn’t ever something he had done comfortably, not in any regeneration, not even on Gallifrey.

Thoughts of Gallifrey were painful, so he shoved them out of his mind and focused on the here and now. The registrations were not all that different than getting a falsified birth certificate and driver’s license from Pete, he tried to tell himself. And he had done that. For a moment he bemoaned the loss of his psychic paper, which would have made it unnecessary for Owen to risk his neck with this plan to get him registered. But there was nothing to be done about that now; he didn’t have it and that’s that. He hadn’t even mentioned it to Rose. She had enough on her mind without listening to him whinging.

While the Doctor was struggling with feelings of anger and powerlessness, Rose was feeling a sense of resignation. She had been through tough times in Pete’s World ever since she had been trapped here, but it had never been like this, being herded like cattle to be branded. And although the Doctor had once called her Defender of the Earth, she didn’t feel much like a defender of anything today. 

Before they had left the Hub, she had received several phone calls from aliens who were long term residents of Cardiff. In the wake of everything happening, they were trying to get off-planet. _Rats deserting a sinking ship_ , she thought. But she didn’t blame them; like the Doctor, they couldn’t give a DNA sample. And unless they managed to sort this soon, things threatened to get much worse before it got better.

Soon, she told herself. Soon she and the Doctor would figure what all this was about and sort it.

Further down the queue, Gwen spotted PC Andy Davidson. He was standing near the doorway to the testing center, only a couple of yards away from Ianto and the Doctor. “Shit,” she muttered under her breath. She and Andy had attended school with the younger brother of the man the Doctor was impersonating, and she didn’t want to risk Andy overhearing the name the Doctor was using. Not to mention the fact that Andy knew Rose from her days working at the Hub before. She realized she really needed to do something to head off potential problems. So Gwen left the queue to go talk to her former partner.

“Hey,” she said, walking up to him.

At the sound of her voice, Andy turned. And gaped. “Jesus, Gwen, I never would have believed it, but you’re bigger than the last time I saw you. You’re enormous.”

“Gee, thanks, Andy,” she said sarcastically. “Whatever would I do without you to point that out to me?”

As she spoke, she casually walked around him so that if he wanted to talk continue to talk to her, he’d be forced to face the other direction. 

“So, what do you think about all this?” she said in a low voice. She took a few steps backwards, as if she was just trying to find a comfortable place to lean against the wall. After a couple of furtive glances around him, he followed her. _Good_ , she thought. _The further away he was from the initial ID check, the better._

“It’s ridiculous,” he answered quietly. “What’s the point? What are they trying to accomplish by doing all this? We’ve already got identification cards on everyone. And why are they registering all the children? And I really don’t like the military involved in what should be purely civilian stuff. But don’t tell anyone I said that; I heard they’re arresting people for less.”

As he spoke, Gwen noticed the queue had moved. Both the Doctor and Rose had moved far enough away that Andy probably wouldn’t notice them.

“I know what you mean,” she responded. “Listen, I’ve got to queue up again. I’ll talk to you later.” She moved to leave and he stopped her.

“Gwen, just stay safe, okay?” he said seriously. “Specially with that little one you’re gonna have soon.”

“Yeah,” she said, rubbing her stomach protectively. “I’ll try. Thanks. And you be careful, too.”

He nodded.

~oOo~

“Next.”

The Doctor walked up to the table. A middle-aged policewoman sat behind a laptop computer taking everyone’s information in preparation for registration.

“Name and identification cards,” she said in a bored tone. She was looking at the computer screen in front of her and didn’t bother to look up at him.

“Roger Carter,” the Doctor said. He placed in front of her the birth certificate and driver’s license Toshiko had given him. The driver’s license had been forged by Tosh, but the birth certificate, since it didn’t have a current photo, was genuine. She barely glanced at them, only looking at them closely enough to type the information into the computer system.

“Parents?” she asked.

“Richard and Susan Carter.”

“Place of birth?”

“Swansea,” he answered.

She switched to Welsh. “It says here you speak Welsh fluently. Is that true?”

“Yes,” he answered flawlessly in the same language. “It was my grandparents’ first language and we often spoke it in the home.”

She handed him back the driver’s license and birth certificate and switched back to English. “Your paperwork seems to be in order. Next is the DNA test.”

While the Doctor was speaking to the policewoman, Ianto Jones had entered the testing room. He crossed over to Owen Harper.

“Identification, please,” Harper said, and Ianto handed him his driver’s license. He pretended to examine it and then handed it back.

“Open, please,” he said and Ianto obediently opened his mouth. 

Owen glanced at the police officers monitoring the room. Neither was paying any attention to him, so he pulled out two swabs and used both to thoroughly swipe the insides of Ianto’s cheeks at the same time. He closed them into separate sterile containers and surreptitiously labeled both, one with Ianto’s name, the other with the name the Doctor was using. He placed them into the tray holding the used swabs that were waiting for DNA testing.

“Please continue to the next station for fingerprinting,” Owen said to Ianto. The other man moved on. “Next.”

The Doctor crossed the room to Owen.

“Identification please,” Harper said. The Doctor handed over his false ID from Toshiko. “Open your mouth.” He placed a swab in the Doctor’s mouth but didn’t swipe it.

“Okay, you’re done,” he said, handing back the ID and pretending to process the swab. “Please continue to the next station for fingerprinting. Next.”

~oOo~

The instant Pete walked in the door of the mansion, Jackie waylaid him.

“Peter Alan Tyler, what the heck is going on?” she demanded. “It was one thing to hear on the telly last week that Rose and the Doctor are in Asia when I know full well that they are in Cardiff. But now when the nanny and I took him to the zoo this morning, some woman was asking all sorts of questions about them. She seemed to think they were in San Francisco.”

“San Francisco? Are you sure she said San Francisco?”

Jackie gave him a look that said she thought he was an idiot. “Yes, I’m sure she said San Francisco.”

“Who was she?” Pete asked sharply. “What did she look like?”

“I dunno. Just a woman. Bit younger than me, had a kid with her. Dark hair, sunglasses, too skinny….”

It didn’t sound like anyone in particular he knew, but the description could have been any one of a thousand people he had had contact with. And it might have been someone he had never met.

“You didn’t tell her anything about them, did you?”

“A course not,” she said. “I’m not stupid. ‘S not the first time someone has tried to get close to me to try to get to the Doctor. I know the signs. Learned them the hard way.”

“What do you mean?” Pete asked curiously.

“Never you mind,” Jackie said, not wanting to discuss with Pete the embarrassing situation she had gone through with Elton Pope. “I just know, okay? And as I said then, I’d do anything to protect either one of them.”

Pete pursed his lips and then sighed heavily. He couldn’t keep this from her any longer.

“Jacks,” he said, “you know things are getting nastier and nastier in London. I might have to send you away for a bit.”

“Pete, the break-in, the riots… they’re nothin’ compared to what I’ve been through with the Doctor. Whatever is going on, I can handle it. I belong here with you.”

He looked at her seriously. “Yeah, I know you can handle anything life throws at you. But we have a responsibility to Tony to keep him out of harm’s way. If there ever comes a time when I tell you to go, you two need to go and no arguments.”

Jackie met his eyes somberly. After a moment, she nodded.

~oOo~

That night, Jake sat in front of his laptop again in Torchwood Two getting more and more frustrated. He just couldn’t find anyone who worked for Torchwood with a motive for helping Lisa Hallett escape from Torchwood Four. In fact, other than those who worked with her directly, and Ianto Jones, her former fiancé, he couldn’t find anyone who really knew her well enough to want to help her. And of those, Richard Bradford, the only one who truly had a motive to help her, was dead. And she had broken off her engagement with Ianto years earlier, so he would have been unlikely to want to help her, even if he hadn’t been in Cardiff the first time she escaped.

He slammed one fist on the table. “Dammit, what am I missing?” 

Sitting at a table across the room, Audrey looked up from the book she was reading. “What’s wrong?” she asked. 

“A puzzle,” he told her. “A puzzle with about a million missing pieces. And I don’t even know what the picture looks like.”

“Anything I can help with?” 

He sighed. “Not really. I’m looking for someone who did something, and I can’t figure out who would have a reason to do it.”

She raised one eyebrow. “Someone who did something?”

He laughed ruefully. “Yeah. Sorry I can’t be more specific than that.”

The young woman put one elbow on the table in front of her and rested her chin in her hand. “Y’know, I read a lot of mysteries, and in them they always say that the killer is the one who has means, motive and opportunity. You’re looking at the motive. Have you tried looking at people who had the means or the opportunity to do whatever it is?”

Jake gaped at her for a moment and then quickly turned back to the computer. His fingers flew across the keyboard. “I can’t believe I am so thick. Audrey, if this works, I’m putting you in for a promotion. And a rise in salary.”

She grinned. “And can I have the night off?” she asked hopefully.

“Yeah, yeah, anything,” he said absently, staring at the monitor.

She quickly grabbed her book and her purse before he could change his mind. “See ya tomorrow,” she called on her way out the door. He didn’t respond, not noticing that she had left.

A half an hour later Jake sat back and stared at the screen. He exhaled loudly and ran his hand through his short, blond hair. He had cross-referenced Lisa’s escapes from Torchwood Four with a list of the staff who had been in the building at the time according to their Torchwood employee IDs. Surprisingly, there were only eight staff members who had been in the building both times Lisa had disappeared. All of them would have known of the Vitex party, but only two of them would have known that the mansion was typically empty of staff on nights like that. Neither had an obvious connection to Hallett, and he couldn’t figure out why either one of them would want to break into the mansion let alone bug it, but it was clear that one was the traitor. The question was, which one? 

He swore and pulled out his mobile. When the phone on the other end didn’t ring, he took another look at his phone’s display screen.

“Huh. No signal,” he said aloud. That made absolutely no sense. He had always had a strong mobile signal whenever he had visited the Pub and he hadn’t had a problem with signal since he had begun working here either.

Jake shut down his computer and walked outside. One bar. He swore again. 

He wandered down the street randomly, staring at his phone. Finally, several blocks away, he managed to get barely enough signal to place a call out. To his frustration, Pete didn’t answer. Instead, it went straight to Pete’s message service. 

“Boss,” he said. “Call me as soon as you get this.” 

As he turned around to head back to the Pub, he almost bumped into someone. A woman. She was wearing an extremely revealing top, a very short, too-tight skirt, high heels, and what Jake estimated was about a pound of makeup. 

“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t see you there.”

“Not a problem.” She smiled and winked at him. “Lookin’ for some company tonight?”

“Uh, no,” he said, a false smile plastered on his face. “Thanks just the same but I’ve got to get going.”

He moved to walk around her and she stepped in front of him. “Oh, don’t go. I think you and me could have a really good time.”

“Lady, you’ve really got the wrong guy,” he told her, a bit amused. He tried to walk around her again, and again she stepped in front of him.

“I don’t think so,” she said in an entirely different tone of voice.

Jake turned around to walk away, and there was a very large man standing behind him, pointing a gun at him. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered it as some sort of sub-compact Glock. He wasn’t certain of the accuracy of that particular model, but at this distance it didn’t have to be accurate.

 _Dammit, I’m losing my touch_ , he thought. _I should have realized it was a set up._

“Listen,” he said to them, “I don’t have my wallet on me, but my stud is a real diamond. It was a gift and it’s worth a hell of a lot. Let me just give you that, let me walk away and I won’t report this to anyone.” He reached up to remove his earring.

The man shook his head. “Mr. Simmonds, you need to come with us.”

 


	25. Chapter 24

Pete Tyler was stuck in traffic, again, on his way to Torchwood Four. He would be meeting with the president later regarding the future of Torchwood as a part of the newly-formed UNIT, but first he needed to swing by his office at Torchwood.

He stuck his head out his window to get a better look in front of him. Traffic looked like it was backed up for miles. He groaned. Every minute he spent on the road was one less minute he could get things organized at the office for the eventual takeover. He didn't know who would be taking over as the head of the newly-formed UNIT, but he was certain it wouldn't be him. In fact, he strongly suspected he might be out of a job by the afternoon, and he wanted to get to the office and double check to make certain that there was nothing incriminating in it, not of himself, and not of Rose, the Doctor or Jake.

After only a few short minutes, he was becoming bored. As a successful entrepreneur, he had learned decades earlier to make every minute count, and he was no longer used to inactivity. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel impatiently.

"What the hell is taking so long?" he muttered.

He reached over to fiddle with the controls of the SUV's air conditioning, more to give himself something to do rather than because it was particularly hot out. When that wasn't enough of a distraction, he started playing with the radio. It had been playing music softly in the background, so softly that he had hardly noticed it, but now he turned up the volume.

No. Not rap. He pressed the scan feature and the radio automatically began to switch stations.

Show tunes from Bollywood. Uh, no.

Classical. No, not today.

Swing. No.

Something came on he couldn't identify, but it had a pounding bass line that shook the vehicle and made his ears feel like they were bleeding. Hell, no. He couldn't change the station fast enough.

A news report came on in mid-sentence.

" _… created an inferno that shot flames fifty feet into the air. The building was formerly occupied by a pub called the Sons of Liberty, but it has been vacant for more than a decade. There have been reports of squatters living there, but it is unknown whether or not there was anyone in the building when it exploded._ "

Pete's heart pounded. Torchwood Two was housed in a pub that had been called Sons of Liberty. What was the likelihood that there was another abandoned pub with the same name?

A commercial came on so he ran through the stations, looking for another news report.

" _… the explosion happened shortly after midnight, and Glasgow authorities are blaming a break in a gas main. Although nearby buildings were threatened, due to the valiant efforts of the fire brigade, the only building that was affected was a vacant building that formerly housed a pub._ "

Pete knew that Jake was staying in the Pub until he could find his own flat. He dug in his pocket for his mobile. Damn, he had missed one call. The display stated that it was from Jake and that it had come in last night at 17 minutes after 6. He played the message.

" _Boss,_ " said Jake over the phone. " _Call me as soon as you get this._ "

Pete immediately rang Jake back, but the call went straight to his messaging service.

"Jake," he said into the phone. "Call me back." _Oh, I hope he's okay_ , he thought.

Traffic had begun moving. He began to slowly move forward, thinking about the irony that the head of an intelligence agency was forced to learn about what had happened to a branch of his own organization on the radio.

Boy, he hoped Jake had made it out of there safely.

After a moment, the car ahead of him slowed to a stop, so Pete pulled out his mobile again. He dialed one more number, but this time to send a text.

~oOo~

Even though it was before 7:00 am, Dr. Martha Jones was already at work doing paperwork. There were requisition forms and claim forms and time sheets…. It was the absolute least favorite part of her job. _You wouldn't think a super-secret intelligence organization that dealt with aliens would keep such a paper trail_ , she thought to herself.

Her phone chimed, signaling a text, and she pulled it out of her pocket. The message was short. Only one word.

_Now._

~oOo~

The Doctor and Rose were having breakfast in the kitchen of the farmhouse when Rose's mobile started ringing. She pulled it out of her pocket and checked to see who was calling.

"Hey, Tosh, I was just on my way in," she said into the phone. "No, we haven't seen the news. What is it?" She was silent for a moment while she listened. Her eyes widened. "Oh, my God. Is Jake okay?" She paused again and then said, "Well, let me know if you hear anything, yeah? And we'll be in soon."

After she rang off, she shoved the phone in her jeans pocket and looked somberly at the Doctor. "Torchwood Two blew up last night."

"What?!"

She nodded. "And what's worse is no one can seem to find Jake. Tosh is monitoring the news out of Glasgow, and it's not good. They're reporting a gas main break, but it's too much of a coincidence with everything else that's going on." Her mobile rang again, and she pulled it back out of her pocket.

"Yeah, Tosh?"

" _Rose, this is Martha Jones. Your dad asked me to call you in case of an emergency._ "

Rose's heart began to pound but she was able to keep her voice even. "What's going on? Is something wrong with my mum or Tony?"

" _I don't know,_ " she answered honestly. " _Your dad gave me a message to relay to you, and I just got a text saying I should tell it to you now._ "

"What was the message?"

" _It was, 'Hope you're having a good time in Sydney. Your mum and Tony have to go to Bucknall House, but not to worry, they don't need medical attention.' Does that make sense_?"

Rose nodded and then remembered the other woman couldn't see her. "Yeah, it does." Rose said soberly. "Thanks. And stay safe. You're taking a risk by being put in the middle of this."

" _You stay safe, too,_ " she replied. " _I get the impression you and the Doctor are at greater risk than I am_."

"What was that all about?" the Doctor asked after Rose rang off.

"That was Martha. Dad had her give me a message," she said, standing up and shoving her mobile back into her pocket. "I've got to get back."

He looked down at himself. Although Rose was already dressed, he was still in a tee and pyjama bottoms. "I'll go get ready," he said, starting to get up.

"No," she told him. "Just me. That was part of the message."

"Rose, what was the message? What did he say?"

"He said, 'Hope you're having a good time in Sydney. Your mum and Tony have to go to Bucknall House, but not to worry, they don't need medical attention.' Sydney means I have to go back. Bucknall House was never part of our code, but it has to mean that they have to go home. Since he can't mean the mansion, cos that's where they are right now, he must mean I need to bring them here."

"And the bit about not needing medical attention means you shouldn't bring me." His face darkened. "Just because Pete says not to bring me doesn't mean I shouldn't go."

"Doctor, I trust Dad," she said. "If he doesn't want you to come with, there must be a reason. But I don't know what it is." She rubbed her forehead. "There's one thing that bothers me about this."

"Only one?" he asked with a quirk of one eyebrow.

She ignored him. "The question is why did Dad decide to have Martha relay the message? Why her and not someone else? He hardly knows her. Certainly not well enough to trust her with this."

The Doctor shrugged. "He must trust her because you do."

She nodded absently. "I do trust her. I liked her instantly. I liked her parallel self, too."

"I know. You mentioned it on the Crucible," he said.

"Yeah, I did. She had a lot of guts to do what she did," Rose replied, and then stopped herself. She looked at him, puzzled. "How did you know that? You weren't there. You hadn't gotten there yet."

He froze.

"How is it even possible that you would know that?" she asked.

He looked away from her and then got up and crossed the room to stare out the window over the sink.

"And that reminds me," she continued. "How did you know exactly what happened to Donna? I know you would know what he probably did, but that's not what it sounded like when you told me about it. You sounded like you were there."

She was met with silence.

"C'mon, Doctor, how did you know that?" she prodded. "Why won't you tell me? Why are you keeping stuff from me?"

He whirled on her. "What about you? What about the things that you aren't telling me? What about what you went through when you used the dimension cannon? What about your nightmares?"

"What about yours?" she countered. She stared at him appraisingly. "But this is different, isn't it?" She paused as she ran the possibilities through her mind. "Let's see. Logically, since you weren't there, you wouldn't know what had happened unless someone told you. But I don't think anyone told you everything I had said in the Crucible while we were in the TARDIS. After all, why would they? And what I said about Martha was just one comment, and not a particularly important one. And no one could have told you what had happened to Donna because it happened after we were here." Her forehead wrinkled as she thought aloud. "The only way you could have known is if someone told you, and there's only one person who could have told you. But he wasn't here. So how could he have told you?"

Her jaw dropped as realization struck.

"You've been in telepathic communication with him, haven't you?" she accused. His body visibly stiffened. "Oh my God, you have been. Why wouldn't you tell me?" When he didn't answer, she continued.

"This is more than just not telling me, isn't it? You didn't want me to know because it was about him. Admit it." When he didn't answer, she repeated herself. "Admit it!"

"Alright, yes!" he exploded. "Yes, I didn't want to tell you."

"But why? Why wouldn't you want me to tell me?"

"You know why, Rose," he said sharply.

She stared at him wide-eyed for a moment. "You can't tell me you're still jealous of him?" She shook her head in disbelief. "This is bigger than you being jealous of Owen or Jake or Mickey. Y'know, I used to think your little jealous streak was cute, but now…."

"It's different with him," he spat out. "You wanted to go with him. You still love him."

Shocked by the anger in his voice, she gaped at him. "I don't have time for this," she said finally, her own anger and frustration apparent in her voice. "I've got to go back to London and get Mum and Tony."

"I'm coming with you," he insisted.

"No, you're not," she said flatly. "Pete doesn't want you there, and right now, neither do I. I've got to focus on getting in and out of London without being seen. If you go, you'll just be a distraction, which I don't need and which could put all of us in danger. We will talk about this, but not now."

She stalked out of the kitchen, the Doctor following close behind. She grabbed her wallet and keys out of a bowl near the front door. "While I'm gone, you need to get ready, because as soon as Mum and Tony are safe, we are going to figure out what the hell's going on and sort this once and for all. And then we're going to talk." And then she was out the door.

The Doctor heard her car door slam and the gravel of the driveway flying as she sped away.

~oOo~

As she headed to the M-4, Rose's mind raced. After all the years she had spent in crisis situations, first while traveling with the Doctor, then while working for Torchwood, she hadn't thought she'd ever feel overwhelmed again, but she did this morning. Between the explosion at Torchwood Two, the fact that Jake was missing, the fact that her mother and Tony were probably in danger because Pete had had to send a message in code to her, and now the argument with the Doctor, she'd had about as much as she could take.

Frankly she could have coped with all of it, except for the fight with the Doctor. Only the Doctor could make her feel this out of control. And this hurt.

He'd been lying to her. A lie of omission was still a lie in her book. She knew he had always kept things from her, but this one was a big one as far as she was concerned.

His accusations stung. She knew she hadn't told him everything she had gone through while looking for him, but he hadn't told her about everything that he had done while they had been separated either. And she hadn't shared her nightmares with him, but neither had he. And she honestly didn't count the fact that she hadn't told him about boosting the TARDIS' energy with her own because she intended to tell him. Eventually, anyway.

But for him not to tell her something as big as telepathic contact with the full Time Lord Doctor…. And it was obvious he never intended to tell her, either.

And then to throw up her feelings for the other Doctor in her face….

No, she couldn't think about the Doctor right now. Either one of them in fact.

Turning to her Torchwood training, she buried her anger and her pain as deep as she could and concentrated on figuring out a way of getting in and out of London without being seen.

~oOo~

Running his hands through his hair, the Doctor stalked back and forth across the room. How had everything gone so pear-shaped so quickly? _Domestics_ , he thought disgustedly. Why had he expected a relationship with Rose wouldn't get domestic?

He picked up a spare thermoregulator off of a bookshelf that had been placed near the fireplace. For a moment he hefted it in his hand. He was overwhelmed with the temptation to throw it against the wall, or possibly through the window where it would make a loud, satisfying crash, but he stopped himself, primarily because he'd be the one who would have to clean up the mess. _This body does have a tendency to want to throw things when angry_ , he thought in frustration. Idly he wondered if it were just an idiosyncrasy of the temper he had in this incarnation, or whether it somehow had something to do with Donna's influence on him during the metacrisis. Either way, he had to control the impulse.

Why, oh why couldn't he control his gob? If he had just kept his mouth shut about the telepathic interaction with his other self…. But he had never really been able to keep his mouth shut, not in any of his incarnations. Why should this one be any different?

Putting the thermoregulator back on the shelf, he sank down onto the couch and rubbed his left eye. Now he was developing a headache on top of everything else.

Fantastic.


	26. Chapter 25

The last time Pete Tyler had been to Downing Street had been when he had met with Harriet Jones on the heels of the break-in at the mansion. Even though that had been just over a month earlier, after the events of the past few weeks it seemed far longer.

The area surrounding Downing Street looked like a war zone. Pete saw broken glass, overturned cars and burned out buildings. Undoubtedly the damage had happened during riots, although he saw no rioters. In fact, he hadn’t seen even a single demonstrator that morning. They must have been cleared out in preparation for the meeting of the heads of the European Alliance that evening, he thought. President Greene certainly wouldn't want to broadcast on live television the problems in Great Britain to the rest of the world.

As he drove, he had to pass four checkpoints. Each probably took only minutes, but each felt like a quarter of an hour or longer. Driving towards Downing Street was an exercise in patience, if nothing else. At each he had to pass over his identification as the head of Torchwood as well as his new, government issued registration card. He had gotten his several days earlier when authorities had registered all the Torchwood employees, but Jackie and Tony had yet to get them. He'd need to do something about that. Either he'd have to get them registered or get them out of London, and possibly out of the country. And soon.

He knew which option he preferred.

Finally, after passing through a final checkpoint and getting approval to enter, he parked in the small car park near Number 10. Although security had always been tight at the building that served both as the president's home and the head of the government, it now reminded Pete of a fortress. There were twice as many guards: at the corners of the building, on the roof and patrolling the street. And where the guards previously had worn historical uniforms or plainclothes, now they looked like soldiers, wearing military uniforms and carrying weapons that looked lethal and were clearly not for show.

After passing through several security checks, Pete was escorted through the halls of Number 10 by two members of the military wearing uniforms emblazoned with UNIT insignias, not by the plainclothes Secret Service agents normally assigned the duty.

When they arrived at the outer office of the president, his executive assistant phoned to notify him Pete was there.

"You may go in," he said after hanging up the phone.

The soldiers escorted him in through the doors and then entered as well, flanking the door and standing at attention.

In the past, the president's office had always impressed him whenever he had visited it. The room was filled with fine furniture and priceless antiques. Portraits of previous heads of state as well as other paintings by famous artists graced the paneled walls. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling and a thick, Oriental carpet lay on the floor. It was designed to leave visitors awestruck, and it usually did. Even someone who had become as jaded as Pete Tyler had over the years wasn't unaffected by it.

But this time Pete was hardly aware of his surroundings, focused as he was on the circumstances of the visit. Behind the ornate cherry desk sat Brian Greene. It was odd to see him there, to see anyone there, actually, other than Harriet Jones. She had been president for eight years and had only narrowly lost to Greene. What was more shocking, however, was to see Harrison Keeling, the leader of the GBF, standing next to him. Or maybe he shouldn't be surprised, Pete thought, as Keeling was instrumental in getting Greene elected.

Pete crossed the room to stand in front of the desk, as he hadn't been invited to sit.

"Director Tyler, we were just talking about you," the president said.

"What's he doing here?" Pete asked gruffly, jerking his head at Keeling.

President Greene raised his eyebrows at Pete's rudeness. "Harrison Keeling's the new leader of UNIT, Director Tyler, and for the moment he's your boss."

"For the moment?" he asked, raising one eyebrow. He wasn't surprised; he had thought he'd be getting fired.

Keeling walked around the desk and nodded to the guards at the door. They stepped forward and stood on either side of Pete.

"Peter Alan Tyler," he said, "you are under arrest on suspicion of treason to the government. Due to the serious nature of your crime, your house will be impounded, your assets frozen and your shares in the Vitex Corporation will be forfeit."

"What?!" Pete demanded. "Suspicion of treason? On what grounds?"

"You have knowingly and willingly consorted with a dangerous alien intent on taking over the planet. It is reported you have even sheltered him in your home."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Do you deny harboring an alien known as the Doctor?"

Pete's heart began to pound. His eyes darted nervously from Keeling to Greene and back again. How on Earth did they know about that?

Keeling continued. "Your failure to deny it is tantamount to an admission of guilt. Where is he?"

Pete's jaw tightened. He looked straight ahead and remained silent.

"Come now, Tyler. We are reasonable men. Tell me where he is and you walk out of here a free man. But if you don't tell me, you'll spend the rest of your life in prison, your wife and your daughter will also be arrested for treason and your son will grow up knowing you and your family not only betrayed the country, but the planet and all of humanity."

Despite Keeling's threats, inwardly Pete breathed a sigh of relief. At least they didn't have Jackie and Tony yet.

"Think about this, Tyler. Is your family worth it? Is this man, this alien, truly worth risking your family over? Just tell me where he is and this will all go away."

~oOo~

The Doctor showered, dressed and headed to his workshop, barely paying attention to what he was doing. Instead, he tried to make sense of his argument with Rose. Evidently he had made a mistake in not telling her about his contact with his other self. But honestly, it hadn't even occurred to him to tell her.

No, that was wrong. It _had_ occurred to him, and he had immediately dismissed it. He had thought it would be too painful for her to hear about _him_ , to think about _him_ and to find out how _he_ was doing.

No, that was wrong too. He would find it too painful to see the expression on her face if he told her.

Over their years together, he had seen so very many expressions on her face: wonder, amazement, happiness, anger, and now desire and ecstasy. And he knew she loved him; he could see it in everything she did and had been able to feel it on those brief occasions when they had been joined telepathically. But the one expression he couldn't forget, would never forget, the one that sometimes haunted him after she had gone to sleep and hounded him in his dreams, was the look of hurt, of grief, that he had seen after he had left in the TARDIS for the final time.

No, this was not the time to think about that.

Well, he was nothing if not a genius in compartmentalizing and burying his feelings. Had he not been, after the centuries he had gone through he would scarcely have been able to function. So that is what he did; he boxed up his fear and shoved it in the dark corner of his mind that he reserved for the most painful things he had experienced.

He put on his glasses and sat down at his computer. As he tried to make sense of the images of recent events flying across the screen, he tapped his foot and drummed his fingers, an aid to concentration. Rose had said she wanted them to be ready to go back and sort whatever was going on in London as soon as she got Jackie and Tony to safety, and he was anxious to do just that. The sooner this was sorted, the sooner he could get things sorted with Rose. But what the hell was going on?

The election of Brian Greene. The formation of UNIT. The DNA registration of Great Britain's citizens. They felt like pieces of a puzzle that didn't fit together properly. And then there were others. The rumors of an alien invasion. The break-in at the mansion. The surveillance equipment from Torchwood he had found in Pete's study. Pete's insistence on no one knowing he and Rose were in Cardiff and his use of code words with Rose. The explosion of Torchwood Two. He was certain it was all related, all entangled, but how? What was the link?

He was missing something. He knew it. It was staring him straight in the face and somehow he was still missing it.

But what the hell could it be?

~oOo~

Despite her best intentions, while Rose drove, her thoughts repeatedly returned to the Doctor. This was the first fight they had had since they had truly been involved, the first fight they had had since they had been reunited, really the only fight she had ever had with this him.

He had lied to her. He had _lied_ to her.

It wasn't the first time he had lied to her; he had lied to her more than once while they were traveling. She had hated it every time, but she knew it was usually to protect her from something. He had lied before he had sent her back home at the Game Station, fooling her into thinking he had come up with a way to save them when he hadn't. He had lied about Jack to protect her from the knowledge of what she had done to him. He had lied when he had told her that the beast at Krop Tor was wrong.

But was this lie to protect her, or to protect himself?

Her mind returned to when they had first been left on this planet. She had overheard him talking to her mother about someone named Susan, and she had asked him about her. He had eventually told her that Susan was his granddaughter, and she remembered that during the course of the conversation he had told her he wanted her to be able to ask him anything, had said he wanted to tell her everything.

Evidently he hadn't meant it.

She suddenly remembered them talking about the metacrisis, when he had finally convinced her that he was not only the Doctor but was in essence the same Doctor that she had traveled with. She had asked him then whether they shared thoughts or anything, and he had put her off. He, the master of evasion, had distracted her from her question and had never answered it.

For a moment she was furious again, until she remembered how he had answered her when she had asked him why he hadn't told her about his telepathic contact with the other Doctor. When he had accused her of still loving _him_ , an accusation she couldn't deny, he had sounded angry, almost bitter. But she realized now that there had been an undercurrent of fear in his tone.

She had accused him of being jealous, but she hadn't realized until just now how deeply it ran. And she didn't know what to do about it. Or even if there was anything she could do.

She was so distracted by her thoughts that she was stopping at a checkpoint before she even realized it was there.

The motorway had been reduced to one lane, and she was blocked in, with several cars in front of her and a long string of vehicles stretching behind. It was such a tight squeeze that she wouldn't have been able to pull out of the line even in her tiny car, and even if she had wanted to. But she didn't, at least not now. Trying to avoid the checkpoint would draw more attention to her than if she just went through it.

Well, this would be the real test for her new ID, she thought. It was in the name Penny Meyers, a woman who used to live in Newport who was approximately her age and vaguely resembled her. She had been picked by Toshiko because the real Penny had married and moved to Helsinki.

When it was her turn, an army private had taken her new government issued registration card and spent a long while comparing her to the photo on it. Eventually satisfied that the photo was of her, he ran it through a handheld scanner, presumably to verify the information on the ID was correct. She held her breath. After a moment the scanner went ding, a light on the top lit up green, and the soldier waved her through. As she pulled forward she let out a sigh of relief.

After having passed through the checkpoint unimpeded, Rose concentrated on paying better attention to her surroundings. She knew another slip up like that could put them all in danger. But the rest of the drive was uneventful, and she found that despite the checkpoint, she had made it to the mansion in record time. She pulled around to the garage and walked into the house through the kitchen, calling for her mum.

"Rose," Jackie exclaimed, rushing into the room when she heard her daughter's voice. She pulled her into a hug. "Why didn't you tell me you were comin'?"

"Because I didn't know I was coming until just a little bit ago."

Jackie looked at her soberly. "It's time, isn't it? You came to take me and Tony with you, didn't you?"

Rose nodded. "Got a message from Dad and came straight here. Is there anyone else here? Besides Tony I mean."

Her mother shook her head. "Your father put them all on extended leave. He even put Todd on leave."

"What? Why?"

"Because someone at the zoo was askin' questions about you and the Doctor. Pete wasn't sure who he could trust, so he thought better safe than sorry."

Before Rose could process that, her mobile rang. She quickly pulled it out of her pocket and glanced at the display before answering.

"Yeah, Ianto?"

" _Rose, a friend of mine who works at Number 10 just rang me. Your dad's been arrested._ "

"What?!"

" _There's more. They've issued warrants for you and the Doctor, and there are BOTLs out for both of you._ "

"Damn," she said. "If they've got warrants out for us, they've figured out we're still here. What else?"

" _They've also issued a warrant for your mother's arrest, and they've frozen all of Director Tyler's accounts. Where are you?_ "

"I'm at the mansion."

" _Get out of there,_ " he said. " _They are going to impound it. They may be on their way already._ "

Rose swore using every curse word she had learned in her years at Torchwood as well as a number of alien ones she had learned from Jack Harkness. Since Ianto had also worked for Torchwood for years, he understood most of it.

" _I couldn't agree more_ ," he said.

"I'll call you from the road," she told him.

" _Don't take your car. They are watching for it as well as all the cars your dad owns._ "

She swore again and stomped her foot in frustration.

"Ianto, call the Doctor and tell him what you told me. Then I want you all to get over to the farmhouse. Rhys, too. If they are looking for us here, they may be able to track us to Cardiff, and if they do, they'll try to get to us through you. I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

" _Will do_ ," Ianto said. " _Stay safe, Rose._ "

After Ianto rang off, Rose stared unseeing as the wheels turned in her mind. They needed a car. And she couldn't think of anyone she trusted well enough to contact to get one. She hadn't really gotten to know many people in London. The only people she was really close to, other than the people in Cardiff, were Mickey and Jake, and with Mickey gone and Jake missing, there wasn't anyone. Well, there was Martha… but they had involved her too much in this already. No, she'd only contact her as a last resort.

She turned to her mother, wondering how to tell her about her stepfather. Finally she decided that there was no way to break it to her gently.

"Mum, Dad's been arrested."

"What?!"

"And there's more. They're coming to impound the mansion. We need to go now." Rose looked at her mum, and for the first time since she had walked into the house she noticed what her mother was wearing. As was typical, Jackie had on a track suit, this time in hot pink, and she had matching bedroom slippers on her feet. "You need to change. Wear jeans and trainers. And we need a car. Do you know anyone who could loan us one? Someone you really, really trust."

Jackie thought for a moment. "There's Mrs. McDonald's son Jeremy," she said. "He's tryin' to sell his car."

"Can we trust him?"

"Oh, Rose…." She stopped herself. Considering the circumstances, it was more than a fair question. "Yes," she answered confidently. "I'm sure."

"But would you stake your life on it? Or Tony's? Because you will be."

Her mother took a deep breath before she answered. "Lydia McDonald's been with us the whole time we've been here. Outside the family, I trust her more than anyone else. And Jeremy's done work around here over the years as well. If we can't trust them, we can't trust anyone."

Rose stared at her mother for a moment before handing her her mobile. "I hope you're right about trusting them. Call her and tell her we'll buy Jeremy's car, but we need to have her son bring it over right away. But he can't bring it here. Tell him we'll meet him…" She thought for a moment, considering the possibilities that were within walking distance of the mansion. And where they would go unnoticed. "We'll meet him on Beale Street, in front of St. Stephens. Where's Tony?"

"Upstairs in his room."

"I'll go get him. After you call Mrs. McDonald, I need you to get dressed and pack a bag. But only bring what you can carry. While you do that, I'll get some things for Tony. And don't bring your mobile. They may be able to track it. We'll use mine if we need to call anyone. And Mum," she said seriously, "we absolutely need to be out of here in less than five minutes."

Jackie nodded. As she began to dial, Rose grabbed a knapsack for herself out of the cupboard in the hall. Back during the days Pete had been involved with the Preachers, he had begun keeping emergency supplies on hand and ready in case he needed to leave somewhere in a hurry. He hadn't kept the knapsacks packed in years, but he still had them. Whispering a word of thanks for that, as well as for the fact that he trusted her with the combination to the safe, she practically ran to Pete's study.

Rose opened the safe and grabbed all the cash and papers out of it, dumping it all into her bag. She didn't bother to sort through it. There'd be time enough for that later. Underneath it all she spotted the battery the Doctor had used to store the Kern. It was vital that they, whoever _they_ were, not get ahold of that, she told herself, and put it into the bag as well. Then she rushed upstairs to find her brother.

She found him in his room, playing with his toy zeppelin.

"Rose," he said excitedly when he saw her. He ran to her to give her a big hug, and she hugged back, squeezing him tightly and trying not to think what all this might mean for him.

"Tony," she said after she had let him go, "put on your shoes and then get your knapsack and put your favorite jimjams and a couple of toys in it. You and Mum are gonna come and stay with the Doctor and me for a couple of days, okay?"

The boy brightened. "At your new house?" he asked.

"Yep. At our new house." She grinned at him to cover up her anxiety. The last thing she wanted to do was scare her little brother.

"What about Dad?" he asked.

"You don't worry about Dad, Tony. The Doctor and I'll come and get him right after we get you and Mum settled. Okay?"

"Okay," he said.

She knelt down and hugged her little brother again. And for the first time in her life, she really understood why her mother was so protective of her. It was how she felt about Tony. She would do anything to keep him safe.


	27. Chapter 26

"I see from the news reports you've been made head of UNIT," he said into his mobile.

 _"Yes."_ He could hear Keeling's smugness almost ooze over the phone. " _I have the president's complete confidence and the power of the entire intelligence community behind me. And we have Pete Tyler in custody._ "

"Has he told you where Smith, I mean the Doctor, is?" he asked.

" _Not yet. Now that I'm the head of UNIT, I'm in charge of Torchwood as well. I have access to all their resources directly. It's only a matter of time before Tyler tells me everything he knows._ "

"Did Simmonds talk?"

" _No, but through monitoring his computer, we realized he knew about you. But our people got to him before he could tell anyone._ "

"You think," he said.

" _I know,_ " Keeling replied. " _Because if Simmonds had told anyone about you, you wouldn't be there. And no one has made the connection between us yet._ "

"That's just a matter of time," he said.

" _But by that time we will be firmly entrenched, and our plans will not be able to be stopped. Not with Pete Tyler and Jake Simmonds gone._ "

"What about Rose Tyler and the Doctor?" he asked.

" _With no support from Torchwood and the entire government after them, there won't be anything they can do._ "

Hoping Keeling was right, he changed the subject. "I've been meaning to ask you, has construction begun?"

" _Not yet, but the plans for it are on my desk. How about your little classification project?_ "

"We have found some suitable candidates, primarily in Cardiff, Wales, for some unknown reason. There are others in other locations, but far fewer as a percentage of the population, so we are keeping our eye out for people whose ancestors are from Cardiff. But we are not done with the DNA testing yet."

" _My family was originally from south Wales,_ " Keeling said. " _It seems many of us are from that area. Aren't your family's roots in Cardiff?_ "

"On my mother's side."

" _And wasn't it a happy coincidence that one of the president's main opponents, Margaret Blaine, was also from Cardiff? She's now one of us as well. Concentrate on Cardiff. Search their records carefully. Perhaps we will find enough candidates there. And I think it's time for you to come in. It has been too long since you've been one with our brothers._ "

~oOo~

Within minutes of Rose receiving the phone call from Ianto, she, Jackie and Tony were hiking through the trees that surrounded the Tyler property. Rose had warned of the necessity for silence, but for Tony's sake she had tried to make it sound like a game.

_"We're secret agents for Torchwood, Tony," she told him as they left the mansion and crossed the garden. "Secret agents don't make a sound. Can you do that?"_

_Her little brother nodded._

_"Good boy," she whispered to him._

Tony was wearing his favorite knapsack on his back, dark blue emblazoned with pictures of spaceships and stars. Inside he had a change of clothes, his favorite jimjams, a snack, his zeppelin, some small toy cars and his favorite soft toy. In addition to the contents of Pete's safe, Rose had filled hers with extra clothes for Tony and some energy bars. Jackie was also wearing a knapsack which she had filled with her own clothing, her jewelry and some extra food and bottled water.

As they walked, they tried to stick to the strips of trees that had been planted to separate the grounds of the palatial homes in the area. Between the cover of the trees and the fact that most of the homes were empty at this hour, save an occasional employee, Rose was reasonably certain they wouldn't be spotted.

Things went smoothly until the neighbor's dog started barking.

It was a Pomeranian: a four pound, fluffy, yappy burglar alarm.

They froze for a second, hearts racing, and then moved deeper into the shadows.

Tony thought it was just an exciting part of the game, but Rose and Jackie had a few long moments worrying if they would be spotted. When it became obvious no one was going to come check on the little dog, who had a habit of barking at her own shadow, they moved on.

Before they had left, Jackie had told her that Jeremy had agreed to both sell Rose his car and meet them at the Anglican church. The ancient edifice, constructed of large stones from local quarries, had not been used as a place of worship for years and had sat abandoned for more than a decade. These days it was only a minor tourist attraction, a building of slight interest for its cemetery that contained the burial plots of a few minor authors, poets and religious figures from Pete's World's history.

Due to Tony's short legs, it had taken them almost half an hour to walk the mile to St. Stephen's, with Rose finally carrying him the last ten minutes. As they approached the church, they could see it through the gaps between the trees. Once they had reached the border of the cemetery, which lay between them and the church, Rose put the boy back down on the ground.

"You two stay here," she said to her mother, quietly but firmly. "I'm going to make sure everything's okay. Alright?"

Jackie nodded tightly. It was the only evidence she had shown that this situation was frightening her, and for a moment Rose was unbelievably proud of her mum. Tony, for the first time sensing that this was more than a game, clung tightly to his mother.

Rose climbed over the low stone fence that surrounded the entire church property and jogged the short distance through the cemetery to the back of the church. Hiding in the relative cover of the shadow of the building, she looked out to the empty street in front of her. Two cars sat in the street in front of the building. A thin young man with a scraggly beard was leaning against one of the cars and looking down the road, presumably watching for them.

Rose turned and motioned to her mother for them to join her, and Jackie and Tony climbed the fence and quietly made their way through the gravestones.

"Is that him?" she asked her when her mother had reached her side.

"Yeah," Jackie answered. "And the other car is Mrs. McDonald's."

"So far, so good," she whispered and walked towards the street, her mother and brother following close behind.

"Are you Rose?" Jeremy called when he saw her approach. A short, middle-aged woman a bit older than Jackie got out of the other car, and she and Jeremy walked towards Rose, Jackie and Tony.

"Yeah," she answered.

Mrs. McDonald rushed forward and hugged them all in turn.

"Are you three alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, we're fine, Mrs. McDonald," Rose answered. She looked from the Tylers' housekeeper to her son and back. "Thank you both for doing this."

"Of course, Rose," she answered. "Your family has been very good to us over the years. And it's Lydia."

"Okay. Lydia." Rose smiled at her and pulled off her knapsack. She unzipped it, pulled out a wad of bills and peeled off some. Jeremy's eyes widened when she handed them to him.

"This is… way, way too much," he said, staring at the amount of money she had given him. "It's not worth a quarter of this." He gestured at his car, which Rose recognized as a decades old Ford Mondeo. Its paint was peeling, its undercarriage was beginning to rust, and one of the back fenders had a large dent. "It's got a couple hundred thousand miles on it."

"Does it run?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, runs great. It just looks like shite," he answered.

"Then it's perfect," she told him. She turned to her mum. "You and Tony get in the car and wait for me."

After Jackie and Tony had made their way to the car, Rose turned back to Jeremy and Lydia. She handed Lydia another handful of bills.

"The Doctor and I are going to try and sort this, but I don't know how long that's going to take. In the meantime, you two should take a little trip," she said. "France is very nice this time of year. Or maybe Italy would be good."

"Okay," Jeremy said slowly, not understanding, but Lydia nodded. She had worked many years for the Tylers. Lydia McDonald knew that if things were so bad in the country that the Tylers had to go on the run, whoever was after them might come after her as well, looking for them.

"And, you probably don't need to let anyone know you are going," Rose continued. "In fact, you could probably buy clothes and things when you get there."

Lydia looked at her somberly. "Stay safe, dearie," she said.

"You, too," Rose answered.

~oOo~

The Doctor met the Torchwood SUV when it pulled up in front of the old farmhouse, having heard it come up the gravel drive. Toshiko and Owen immediately got out, both carrying duffle bags.

"I'm going to need to use your computer," Toshiko told the Doctor after greeting him. "I need to hack into the Torchwood database to try and figure out what's going on, and if I use mine, they'd be able to track it back to me. And I still don't know how you managed to make yours untraceable."

He grinned at her. "I'm very clever," he said. He jerked his head towards the barn. "You know where it is. After all, you helped set it up." As she headed in that direction, he turned to Ianto, who was still seated behind the wheel of the car. "Pull around to the back and into the trees where it can't be seen from the road or from above." As Ianto drove behind the house, Gwen pulled up in her bright red Vectra.

The Doctor grimaced when he saw the color of her car. "We're gonna need to hide that thing," he told her. "With it being red like that, it's too visible."

"I figured that," she said.

"Where's Rhys?"

"Still on the road," she answered. "He said he'd get here quick as he can." She tried to get up but couldn't quite manage it. "Help me out, yeah? I'm a bit wedged in here."

The Doctor grabbed her hands and pulled, and she popped out of the car like a cork in a bottle.

"Thanks," she said. "I've got a knapsack in the back. Can you get it out for me?"

"What do you have in here?" he asked as he hefted it. "Lead pipes?"

Gwen shot him a look. "Now why would a woman who is almost ready to pop be carrying around lead pipes? They're copper, and I was planning on doing some plumbing while I was here," she said sarcastically. "Just bring it in the house, alright?"

He snorted and then became thoughtful as she reminded him of another woman in another universe who used to sass him and order him around. And then he realized that for just a second he had almost expected Gwen to call him Space Man. Missing Donna, and also feeling a wave of sadness for what had happened to her, he followed Gwen into the house.

~oOo~

"Where are we goin'? Aren't we goin' to your place?" Jackie asked as she stared out the passenger side window. Having just left the church, they were still not far from the mansion, but to her surprise, they were driving further into the neighborhood and in the opposite direction of the motorway.

"We need to get back to Cardiff," Rose answered quietly, "but even more than that we need to not get caught." She glanced in the rearview mirror at Tony. To her relief, he was playing with one of the toys he had brought with him and wasn't paying any attention to the adults. "Right now, the motorways are going to be the most closely watched. They had already begun to set up roadblocks on the M-4 on my way out here, and that was even before they were looking for us. We're gonna need to take some of the side roads." She suddenly pulled to the side to the side of the road and parked.

"Wha?" Jackie started.

"Look." A long line of police cars and black SUVs were driving through the intersection in front of them, heading in the direction of the mansion.

"Those look like the cars Torchwood has," Jackie said.

"Yeah, but they're not Torchwood. They're a bit different, armed differently."

"You can tell that from here?"

Rose nodded. "I've driven enough of them over the years. But they are from UNIT, though."

"Guess it's a good thing we got out of there when we did," Jackie's light tone couldn't completely disguise her nervousness.

Rose reached over, grabbed her mother's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "We're gonna be okay, Mum. The Doctor and I are gonna get this sorted."

Jackie nodded.

Over the next half hour they drove around the outskirts of the city, generally but not entirely heading west, trying to get out of London. Everywhere they turned they seemed to see more police or more UNIT troops.

And much of the city was blocked off.

"It's for that thing tonight at Downing Street," Jackie told her.

"What thing at Downing Street?" Rose asked, turning to avoid a police car in front of them.

"Where all the leaders in Europe are comin' here for a meetin'?" When Rose looked blank, Jackie continued. "Honestly, Rose, it's been mentioned on telly for weeks. Don't you two ever get out of that bed of yours long enough to catch up on world events?"

When it became obvious Rose was going to ignore that, Jackie continued.

"Before all of this happened, Pete was supposed to be there."

Rose wasn't really listening; instead she was concentrating on the cars around them. There was far too much of a police presence for the area they were in.

"I need you to get out my mobile and ring up Tosh for me. She's number 7 under speed dial."

Jackie dialed while Rose put a hands-free earpiece for the phone in her ear.

"Tosh," Rose said, "Where are you? Are you close to a computer?"

" _Always_ ," Toshiko answered. " _You know me. And I'm at your place on the Doctor's computer_."

"Oh," she said. "Is he… is he there?"

" _No, he's not. He's in the house with Ianto, Gwen and Owen. Do you want me to get him for you_?"

"No," Rose quickly said, not sure if she was ready to talk to him. "No, I'll talk to him later. I need you to look up something for me. You'll need to hack into the local police databases. I'm about a mile away from Heathrow, and I need you to find the best way from here to Wales, bypassing any checkpoints."

" _I'll do you one better_ ," the other woman replied. " _I'll hack into UNIT's GPS visuals. Just give me a minute. Is there a place you can pull over without being noticed_?"

Rose drove down the street, searching. There was parking available on the kerb, but nothing she could spot… There. She saw a car park located next to a restaurant. She pulled in and found a spot between two larger vehicles.

"Okay, I've parked. I'm in the car park of a restaurant called Guido's Pizzaria on the corner of," she craned her neck to look at the nearby street signs, "Placer and Oak Street."

" _Rose, what are you driving_?"

"A '94 Ford Mondeo. It's a muddy brown color with a few dents and the paint peeling off. I'm parked between a van and a pickup truck."

While Rose waited, she could hear the tap of Toshiko typing on the computer's keyboard.

" _Ooo, the car park is rather full right now, isn't it_?" she said.

"Yeah, it is."

" _Rose, from this angle I can't tell the make or model of the cars very well to find yours specifically. You need to do something to help me see you._ "

Rose stuck her arm out the driver's side window and waved.

" _Oh, that worked,_ " Toshiko said, surprise evident in her voice. " _I can see you. And I'll be able to see anything in front of you as well. What I'll do is this…._ "

~oOo~

Sitting at her desk in her office at Torchwood, Martha Jones was staring into her computer, completely unable to concentrate on the reports in front of her. Instead, her mind kept on returning to the gossip she had heard that morning. The news about Director Tyler's arrest had swirled through the building within minutes of its occurrence, and now, hours later, she still couldn't wrap her head around it. Pete Tyler, a traitor? It didn't seem possible. The idea that you never really knew anyone or what they were capable of was a truism, but based on her relationship to Jackie Tyler and what she knew about Pete Tyler's history, she just couldn't believe it of him.

In fact, no one she had spoken to could believe it of him. And no one they had spoken to could believe it of him either.

And no one seemed to know what the charges were based on.

Martha was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't hear the UNIT soldiers enter the infirmary until they were standing in front of her desk.

"Dr. Jones," the tallest of the soldiers said, "would you please come with us?"


	28. Chapter 27

In the compound Pete Tyler had selected to house Torchwood Four, in Pete Tyler’s office, behind Pete Tyler’s desk sat Harrison Keeling. As head of UNIT, he could have had his pick of offices to choose from. President Greene had offered him an office in Whitehall, in Westminster, even at Downing Street itself. But there was a certain poetic justice in taking Pete Tyler’s office. 

Tyler was the one who stood in his way in finding the Doctor; despite Keeling’s earlier bravado, he knew that the Doctor knew too much about their organization, even if he didn’t realize it yet. With Pete Tyler out of the way, they were one step closer to having that threat eliminated.

Tyler was also the one who had taken down the GBF years earlier. Keeling had never forgiven him for that: for the destruction of the organization Keeling had helped to build, and for the years he had had to spend trying to rebuild it.

And of course, with having an office at Torchwood, there was the additional appeal of having Torchwood’s resources literally at his fingertips.

And Harrison Keeling particularly loved the fact that several floors below him, in a cell in the sub-basement of the organization he formerly ran, sat Pete Tyler himself.

But Keeling wasn’t a fool. He was taking the office at Downing Street as well.

When he had first taken over the office, he had curled his lip in disgust at its cold, industrial shelving, its concrete block walls painted an industrial green, and its government issued metal desk and uncomfortable desk chair. The room was small, crowded and ugly. He couldn’t believe that a man as wealthy as Tyler reportedly was would spend so much time working at a government job and in such an unpleasant office. If he was going to spend any amount of time here, he’d have to knock out a wall, upgrade the furniture, put in a private toilet, he had thought. For he had decided after he had arrested Pete Tyler that he would not hire a replacement for him. Instead, he himself would do double duty as both head of UNIT and Director of Torchwood.

Now, across the desk from him sat the man that had made all of this possible, who had cleaned up after the mess Lisa Hallett had made, who had aided her escape and caused her amnesia and who had arranged for the break-in at Pete Tyler’s mansion. He had also coordinated with other members of the GBF who worked for Torchwood for the theft of alien technology as well as Lisa Hallett’s computers.

“Do you really think it is wise having me here?”

“Why not?” Keeling asked. “I’m in charge of UNIT, I’m in charge of Torchwood, and with the arrest of the heads of all the various departments here, there is no one to oppose me. You have been given full access to this facility; you can even have your old job back if you’d like.”

The other man snorted. “Not bloody likely.” 

“Suit yourself.” 

“Why did you have everyone arrested?”

“I figured it would be easier to convince Greene that the entire Torchwood organization was bad than it would be for me to try and figure out who was still loyal to Tyler and who wasn’t.” Keeling shrugged. “Greene was more than willing to believe that Torchwood was trying to take over the planet.”

“Well, if it wasn’t before, it is now,” the other man said dryly.

Keeling chuckled. “Anyway, while you’re here I’d like you to conduct some interrogations. Find out how much our organization has been exposed by Jake Simmond’s discoveries and to whom.”

“I thought blowing up Torchwood Two would clean up that mess.”

“Only in part. By blowing it up, we’ve destroyed all the evidence as well.” 

“Did they find anything at the mansion?”

Keeling shook his head. “They are still searching it to see if Tyler left any indication where the Doctor and Rose Tyler are, but so far they haven’t found anything. The safe was cleaned out, though, so somehow someone knew we were coming and managed to warn Tyler’s wife.” 

Keeling reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled out a familiar padded envelope. It was the same envelope he had been given after the initial break-in of the mansion. “You know what this is. I need you to commune with our brothers, remind yourself why what we are doing is so important, and keep it on your person until you see me again.”

The other man nodded and then stood up to leave. 

“Don’t forget,” Keeling said. “There’s a meeting of the heads of the European Alliance tonight at Number 10. I expect you to be there, with that.”

He nodded again. As he left, a tall, thin woman Keeling vaguely recognized from GBF meetings appeared in the doorway. Her tailored suit and the severe bun that her dark hair was pulled into made her look at least a decade older than her actual age. 

“Director Keeling?” she said. “My name’s Darla Henning. I’m the forensic accountant working on the Tyler case.”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “Please, come in.” He gestured at a chair across the desk from his.

“Thank you very much, sir.” She handed him a folder from her briefcase before sitting down. “That is the preliminary report you requested on Peter Tyler’s finances, both personal and through Vitex. Most of his personal spending is what you would expect, food, power, staff, etc., but one item was unusual. It is a weekly cash transfer to a numbered account in a bank in Wales.”

“Really?” He glanced through the report in front of him. 

“Now we haven’t finished investigating Vitex’s expenditures either, however we did find one interesting thing purchased a little over a month ago. It was a deluxe flat in Cardiff overlooking the bay. I don’t know what you were looking for, but those two things put together, the unexplained money transfers and the purchase of a flat, usually add up to keeping a mistress.”

He looked up from the report and slowly smiled. “Not in this case.” He stood and shook her hand. “Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much. And let me know immediately when you find out anything else.” 

After she left, he pulled out his mobile. 

“They’re in Cardiff. Undoubtedly working for Torchwood Three. Send some troops out to pick them up.”

~oOo~

Sitting behind her desk in her office at what was now UNIT headquarters, General Winifred Bambera hung up the receiver and stared thoughtfully at the phone in front of her. Standing at the other side of the desk was her aide de camp, Captain Erisa Magambo.

“Is everything alright, ma’am?” she asked.

“I don’t like this, Captain,” Bambera answered, shaking her head. “Director Tyler of Torchwood was arrested this morning on charges of treason. I know Pete Tyler – actually worked with him during the Cyberman business. I’d sooner believe that I was a traitor than he is. And now there are warrants for Rose Tyler and her boyfriend, as well as the entire staff of Torchwood Three, apparently. But what really puzzles me is the warrant for Jackie Tyler. That one doesn’t make any sense.” She pursed her lips, puzzling over the situation. Then, decision made, she looked up at her assistant.

“Magambo, I want you to go to Cardiff and personally head up the investigation. Find out what the hell’s going on.”

“And then?”

“And then report directly to me. You’re dismissed.”

Magambo saluted and turned to leave, and then the General stopped her.

“Oh, and Captain, send Captain Price in here. If you are going to Wales, we need someone to find out what’s going on in Torchwood Four.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

~oOo~

At Toshiko’s instructions, Rose pulled out of the car park and headed north. Traffic was backed up both heading into the city and towards the airport, but as she was going neither direction, within minutes the road opened up in front of her. Relieved to finally be driving away from the chaos that was London, she put on some speed.

She glanced in her rearview mirror at Tony. Like many small children, he usually fell asleep while riding in a car, and this time was no different. He looked incredibly uncomfortable; his head had fallen to one side and was resting on his shoulder in a position only possible for the very young. She felt a wave of love for her little brother. He was the reason she needed to be careful, she reminded herself. If nothing else, she needed to get him to safety.

Following Toshiko’s instructions, they drove without stopping through suburbs and smaller towns. She directed Rose along little known roads, side streets, and through car parks in order to avoid being spotted. Finally, after an hour in the car, they entered the countryside. The area was quiet and in other circumstances would have been enjoyable. There were tall trees and bushes on either side of them, shading the roadway and essentially blocking the view to the nearby farmland and pastures. Since the area was relatively unpopulated, they drove for miles without seeing any other vehicles. And for the first time since breakfast, Rose began to relax.

Her earpiece had been irritating the inside of her ear, so she had removed it and had switched her mobile to the speakerphone. Still, her mobile had been quiet so long that she was startled when she heard Tosh’s voice come through the speaker.

“ _Okay, Rose, there’s a police car headed your way, around a bend in the road approximately a quarter mile ahead of you_ ,” she said. “ _Make sure you don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself_.”

Rose and her mother exchanged glances. 

“Rose,” Jackie said, “your speed.”

She looked down at her speedometer and, mindful of her brother in the backseat, she bit off a curse. Her mother was right. In her desire to get them home quickly, she was actually speeding. She might as well have put a sign in the window of the car saying “Pull me over”. Kicking herself for her carelessness, she slowed down.

Ahead of them, they saw the police car round the bend and drive towards them. As it passed, it slowed down and the two officers in the vehicle stared at them. To their relief, the car continued on while Rose rounded the curve in the road. Once the police car was out of sight, Jackie took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“That was too close, Tosh,” Rose said. 

“ _Rose_ ,” Tosh said urgently, “ _they’re turning around. There’s a driveway on your right in forty feet. It leads to what looks like a barn and some other outbuildings. Duck in there and pull around to the far side of the barn_.”

“Tosh, I don’t see it.”

“ _It’s there. I can see it on my screen. You should be right on top of it_.”

“I still don’t…” Rose started as she slowed down to a crawl and stared at the tall shrubbery that lined the road. All at once she saw a narrow break in the bushes.

“Oh, there it is,” she said in relief. The entrance to the driveway obviously hadn’t been used in quite a while. The branches had grown to as narrow as three feet apart in some places, and tall weeds covered the path. Rose turned sharply into the drive; the branches scratched the windows and doors of the car as they passed through the overgrown hedges. 

“ _Good_ ,” Toshiko responded. “ _Once you’re there, turn off the motor. I’ll let you know when you’re clear_.”

They passed several outbuildings, a shed that was on the verge of falling down and what looked like an ancient chicken coop before reaching an old, stone barn. She pulled up to it and parked.

“Tosh, how close are they?” she said quietly.

“ _They drove past you and are about a mile down the road. They’ve slowed way down; they’re obviously looking for you._ ” Rose heard a sharp intake of breath. “ _Oh, now they’re turning around again._ ”

Rose looked over at her mother. Jackie was biting her lip nervously. 

“Tosh, I’ll have to call you back,” she said and rang off. She then turned to Jackie. “We’re going to have to hide the car. I’m gonna get out and see if I can get the barn door open.”

Jackie nodded as Rose got out and walked up to the barn. Although it was old, the doors looked sturdy and were chained shut with a large padlock securing them. She rushed back to her mother, opened the passenger side door and held out her hand.

“Mum, I need one of your hair slides. And then get into the driver’s seat and get ready to pull into the barn.”

“What…” she began as she slid into the other seat.

“Don’t argue. Just give me one.”

Jackie pulled one out of her hair. “Do you need the band too?” she asked, letting her hair down from its typical ponytail.

“No, just the slide,” she answered and rushed back to the lock. Muttering a prayer that she could do this quickly enough, she managed to pick the lock in record time and rushed to open the doors. Jackie pulled in and Rose closed the door behind her. She hurriedly chained the door and locked it again, then walked around the building. Damn, she thought. She couldn’t see any way to get in. No holes in the foundation to crawl through, no broken windows to climb through. 

She could hear the sound of a motor in the distance. Heart racing, she glanced around her. Despite the rundown condition of the buildings, everything looked locked up tight.

Except the chicken coop, she thought.

She ran back to it. The fence surrounding it was also locked, but it wasn’t that high. Six, maybe seven feet up. Not too bad, she thought. She could make it. As the sound of the engine grew nearer, she backed up and ran for the fence. She caught the top, pulled herself over and dropped to the ground on the other side. Then she crawled into the coop.

Inside the barn, Jackie heard a vehicle pull up and people get out. As car doors closed, Tony started to wake up.

“Are we there yet?” he asked, yawning.

“Shhh,” Jackie whispered, putting a finger to her lips. “Not yet. And we have to keep quiet again; we’re still playing Torchwood agents.”

Tony nodded.

From her spot in the coop, Rose peeked out through a narrow opening between the boards that made up one of the walls and saw one of the officers rattle the lock on the barn. “They couldn’t be in here,” he said. His voice carried in the still air. “And the other buildings are too small to hide a car.”

“Well, if they aren’t here, where could they be?” the other asked.

“I dunno,” he answered. “We must have missed them somehow. Are you sure it was them?”

Rose saw the other officer shake his head. “They matched the description of Jackie and Rose Tyler, but I couldn’t swear it was them.”

The first officer looked around, and then sighed deeply. “Well, they’re certainly not here. Let’s head out. Maybe we just missed them on the road somehow.”

Rose waited for several minutes after the car pulled away before emerging from the coop. She made a face of disgust as she looked down at herself. Filthy, she thought. She brushed off her clothes and climbed back over the fence. Then she went and unlocked the barn. Her mother sighed in relief when she saw her.

“Oh, Rose, I was so worried!” she exclaimed.

“For a minute there, so was I,” she told her with a small smile. “But we’re okay now. We’ve got to sit tight for a bit, and then we can head out again. But first, I need to call Tosh back.”

Later, Toshiko led them on a circuitous route through the English countryside.

_“Go about five miles on the road you are on, then take a left, go for half a mile, then take a right, followed by a left and then another right. That will take you down a couple of unpaved service roads that aren’t on the map, but it will allow you to avoid a checkpoint they’ve set up ahead of you.”_

_“Rose, there are several police cars patrolling near you. Take a sharp left at the gate to the national forest. Drive about a mile, then turn left. That will take you to the south entrance. When you head out the other side, turn right, take the second left, then take another right. That will put you on a paved road headed west.”_

_“Okay, all the checkpoints in England are behind you. You’re going to head into northern Wales on a small road that parallels the A40 near Gloucester. Once you’re in Wales, it should be clear sailing to Cardiff, since they haven’t begun to put up any checkpoints here other than the ones on the motorways.”_

“Thanks, Tosh,” Rose said.

“ _Don’t thank me until you’re here_ ,” she replied.

~oOo~

“So where’s Tosh?” Gwen said, looking around the living room. She had already claimed her spot on a recliner near the telly, while Owen had taken over the sofa and Ianto had pulled a chair in from the kitchen. The Doctor, meanwhile, was pacing about the room, a bundle of energy without a different outlet.

“Out in my workshop on my computer,” he said. “We’ll brief her when she’s done out there.”

“Do we know how soon Rose is going to get back?” she asked. She saw a shadow briefly cross the Doctor’s face.

“No,” he said quietly. Then he gave them a bright grin, one they all knew was false, and clapped his hands together. “Right. Now what we need to do is figure out what’s going on and develop a plan about what to do about it.” He grimaced as he mentioned making a plan.

“Let’s start with Pete’s arrest,” he continued. “What do we know?”

“Nothing more than I already told you,” Ianto answered. “He’s been arrested and is being charged with treason.”

The Doctor shook his head in disbelief. “Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Do we know where he’s being held?”

“Not yet,” he answered. 

The Doctor sighed loudly. “Alright, what else?”

“There are warrants out for you, Rose and Jackie.”

“Why Jackie?” the Doctor asked incredulously. “She can’t possibly be a threat to anyone.”

“I’m sure it’s to put pressure on Director Tyler,” Gwen interjected. “But I think it’ll backfire. I know if someone were to threaten Rhys, I’d take them down rather than give in to them.”

“Where is Rhys anyway?”

“Stuck behind a checkpoint on the road. The Severn Bridge checkpoint is searching every truck that passes over the bridge in either direction. He’s still hoping to get here.”

“I hope he makes sure he isn’t followed,” Owen said. “Last thing we need is for him to lead them directly to us.”

“He’s not stupid, Owen,” she returned angrily.

“Coulda fooled me,” he said under his breath.

Gwen glared at him. “You should be thankful I can’t get out of this chair quickly.”

“Please,” the Doctor said, grimacing. “Let’s stop fighting with each other and save it for whoever is in charge of this business. Getting back on topic, what about Brian Greene?”

“Career politician,” Ianto answered. “Came onto the scene about two decades ago. Made his way up the ranks from local politics through Congress and now the presidency. Opposed Lumic and supported Torchwood’s fight against the Cybermen. Not known for extreme political views.”

“And yet he has instigated this mass registration,” the Doctor said. “Owen, have you learned anything more about the registrations?”

Torchwood’s doctor shook his head. “They’re about done on that front. A few isolated areas have yet to be completed. Still not entirely sure what they’re looking for, but they are looking for something. I’d bet my life on it.”

“What about you, Gwen?” the Doctor asked.

“I know someone in the police force up in Glasgow,” she answered. “The Pub is a total loss. They are still calling it a gas main explosion, but privately they suspect arson. They’re thinking rioters. He said he’d call if he had any more information.”

“It’s too big a coincidence to be rioters,” the Doctor said. “And no one’s heard from Jake yet?”

They all shook their heads grimly. 

“And Jake was working on the break-in at the mansion,” he continued. “And Pete’s office at the mansion was bugged with alien technology from Torchwood. It’s all connected, but how? What are we missing?” He groaned in frustration. “If Pete’s been arrested and Jake is missing, who’s in charge of Torchwood?”

“A man by the name of Harrison Keeling,” Ianto answered. “He’s been put in charge of UNIT and, by extension, Torchwood as well.”

“Harrison Keeling? Why is that name so familiar?” the Doctor asked. He pounded his head with the heel of his hand. “Think, think, think! Oh! I remember. Pete said something about the GBF funding Brian Greene’s campaign and that the head of the GBF was Harrison Keeling.”

“He heads the GBF?” Ianto asked. “Are you certain?”

“That’s what Pete said. Why?”

“Because Lisa was a member of the GBF.”

“Lisa was involved with the GBF?” the Doctor asked in astonishment. Ianto nodded.

“She wasn’t a member of the leadership or anything, but she was involved with them. We fought about it all the time.”

“Why is that important?” Gwen asked.

“Because Lisa Hallett managed to get out of Torchwood Four unseen twice,” the Doctor said. “Once when she kidnapped Rose, and once after she had been captured. We wondered how she could have done it by herself without being seen, but it would have been much easier if someone helped her. And then when we add in the fact that the bugs planted in Pete’s office in the mansion were from Torchwood, and that Jake was investigating the break-in, it all points to a traitor in Torchwood who also may be connected to the GBF. We just don’t know who the traitor is.”

“Why don’t we just interrogate her?” Gwen suggested.

“Wouldn’t work,” Ianto said. “She doesn’t remember anything that has happened in the last five years.”

Before they could continue, Gwen’s mobile began ringing and she dug it out of her pocket.

“Hello?” As she listened, her face visibly blanched and she disconnected without saying anything. She stared in front of her in shock.

“Gwen, what is it? Is it Rhys?” Ianto asked.

She shook her head numbly and turned to him.

“That was my contact in the Glasgow Police Department. They found a body in the wreckage. It was too badly burned to be recognized, but they think it was Jake.”


	29. Chapter 28

**Chapter Twenty-Eight**

As Rose pulled up to the farmhouse in the beat up old Monteo, she was surprised to find her staff waiting for her outside with somber expressions on their faces. The Doctor stood a distance away, looking a bit nervous. She assumed by the look on his face he was uncertain about the reception he would get from her.

Tony was the first out of the car and he immediately raced to the Doctor, who grinned and picked him up. Rose started to walk towards him but was stopped by Toshiko.

"Rose, I need to talk to you," she said.

"… and then we walked through a graveyard," Tony said to the Doctor, "and then we saw Mrs. McDonald and Jeremy and then we went on a loooong car ride, and then we hid in a barn…."

"Did you, now?" the Doctor asked him. He looked away from the little boy long enough to see Toshiko lead Rose a distance away from the rest of the group. He couldn't hear what the women were talking about, but from the expression on Rose's face he assumed Tosh had told her about Jake. He plastered a false smile on his face and tried to return his attention to the boy in his arms.

"Yeah, and Rose says I'm gonna stay with you for a few days. Mum, too. And she said you are gonna go get Dad so he can come and visit, too."

"Yes, Tony," the Doctor replied. "We're going to go get your dad in just a little bit. And while we do, you and your mum are going to stay here."

He put the boy down, only to be grabbed into a tight hug by Jackie. He tried to disentangle himself, until he heard her sniff loudly and realized she was crying. He got a lump in his throat. Jackie Tyler usually lashed out when upset. She wasn't normally one to cry. He wrapped his arms around her and patted her on the back.

"Don't worry, Jackie," the Doctor said. "Pete's going to be okay. I'm going to bring him back to you. I promise."

She took a deep breath to compose herself and stepped back to look him in the face. "I believe you. You've always kept your promises to me, every single one. You've always kept Rose safe and brought her back, and I know you can do it for Pete, too."

~oOo~

Tourists and residents alike stopped and stared as UNIT troops converged on the tall, steel and glass building that housed the flat that was owned by Vitex. Military vehicles blocked off the entrance to the indoor garage in the basement of the building, and a truck filled with soldiers pulled up behind them. Onlookers watched as they piled out of the vehicle. After they blocked all the exits, the troops entered and began to methodically search the structure floor by floor.

Once on the top floor, two UNIT soldiers burst through the door of the flat, guns at the ready. They immediately fanned out and searched the rooms as others stood in the hall or guarded the door. The first, a gangly young man with bright ginger hair and a bad complexion, searched the master suite. The other, a tiny woman who could nonetheless take down a man twice her size in hand to hand combat, searched the office.

"Clear," she called to him.

"Clear," he replied.

They walked out of the rooms, guns holstered, into the main living area.

"Nothing is here," he said. "No clothes in the wardrobe, nothing in the bathroom…."

"Nothing in the refrigerator either," she told him. She had crossed the room to search the kitchen for evidence of habitation. "I don't think anyone's been living here for a while." She paused thoughtfully. "They have to be somewhere. We'll search the rest of the place, see if they left any indication where they went, and then notify Captain Magambo."

~oOo~

The mood in the kitchen was somber when Rose and Toshiko walked in from outside. Rose saw that Gwen, Owen and Ianto were sitting at the table, a teapot and used mugs in front of them. As Tosh continued into the room, Rose stopped in the doorway when she saw the Doctor.

The Doctor was leaning against the cabinet near the sink, arms and ankles crossed, until he noticed Rose had walked in. He immediately stood up straight and opened his mouth as if to say something, but then abruptly closed it, as if he had thought better of it. She wasn't sure what to say to him, and whatever it was, she didn't want to say it in front of everyone else. Instead, she turned to her mother.

"Where's Tony?" Rose asked.

"The Doctor set him up in the other room with a Disney movie," Jackie said.

She nodded. "Good. That's good." She took a deep breath and turned to Gwen. "Tosh told me about them finding a body in the wreckage of Torchwood Two. Why do they think it's Jake?"

"Torchwood Two is sort of an open secret up in Glasgow, at least among the police. When they found the body, they questioned Audrey and she said that Jake was still in the building when she left for the day."

"Who's Audrey?" Rose asked.

"Audrey Griffith," Ianto answered. "She works for Torchwood Two. She's kind of like a gal Friday up there, does cleaning, filing, makes tea…"

"So kind of a female you," Owen interjected. Ianto shot him a look.

"Not now, Owen," Rose said sharply. She turned back to Gwen. "So this Audrey, did she say when she left for the day?"

"She wasn't sure; Jake had given her the evening off and she thought she might have left as early as 5:00."

"And when was the explosion?"

"Around midnight."

Rose shook her head. "That's seven hours, too much time to be certain he was there." She looked around the room at everyone. "Whether it was him or not, we need to focus on what we need to do, which is to get to the bottom of this mess and sort it, yeah? For right now we operate on the assumption that Jake's okay, that that wasn't him in there. And later, if it turns out to be him…" Her voice broke off, and out of the corner of her eye she saw the Doctor move, as if he was going to comfort her, but then he stopped himself. She closed her eyes for a second and then continued. "And if it turns out it was Jake, well, we'll deal with that later. Got it?"

Everyone else murmured their assent and then fell silent.

After a moment, Jackie crossed over to the refrigerator and opened it. She stared at the contents inside with a look of incredulity on her face.

"What is it, Mum?" Rose asked.

"'S gettin' late enough, I thought I'd make tea, but I don't see anythin' in here for it. Don't you two eat?"

"We eat," Rose said, slightly defensively. "But we haven't been to the store in a few days and we mostly get takeaway."

"All I've found so far in this kitchen is bananas, four kinds of biscuits and a few jam jars," she scolded. "You can't make a proper tea from that. Makes me think I didn't raise you right. We brought more food with us than you have in this entire kitchen." She turned and looked at her daughter pointedly. "Well, we'll have to get out to the store and get somethin', or we're gonna have to order in."

"Mrs. Tyler, we can't order in," Owen said. "People are looking for you, and we can't risk anyone finding you here."

"But we do need some stuff if we're gonna be here any length of time." Gwen had crossed the room to look into the refrigerator herself. Jackie was right; there was hardly anything in there besides three kinds of jam. "There's like nothing in here. And Tony's gotta eat, if nothing else."

"We also need to think about IDs if we're headed to London," Tosh said. "The registration cards that we've got won't work, not if they are looking for us. We'll have to come up with something else."

"What do you suggest, Tosh?" Rose asked.

"We've all got false passports that I've made in the past," she answered, gesturing at Gwen, Owen and Ianto. "I could make you and the Doctor passports, from Australia or Canada or something, so that the authorities won't be looking at our IDs. The only problem is, I don't have the paper with me to make yours, and ours are in the Hub. Someone will have to go back to the Hub and get them and the paper and covers I need to make yours. Not only that, but the two of you really need to change the way you look. Your pictures are plastered all over the television, all over the internet…."

"And you need to change the way you look anyway," Jackie said to the Doctor.

"What's wrong with how I look?" the Doctor said in outrage.

Jackie raised her eyebrows at him.

"No, seriously," Toshiko said to him. "You need to consider wearing something else. That blue suit is a little… noticeable."

"It's ugly," Jackie said flatly.

"This from the woman who singlehandedly kept the track suit industry in business in two separate universes," the Doctor retorted. "And I have saved entire planets wearing this suit, I'll have you know."

"I wouldn't say it's ugly, necessarily," Gwen said, "but it is… memorable. And you'll need to be able to get in and out of places unnoticed. Luckily you didn't shave today, because that does change your looks quite a bit."

His brow furrowed as his hand automatically flew to his face. She was right. He had forgotten to shave. After his argument with Rose that morning, he had been too distracted to remember to do it.

"You're right about needing to go unnoticed," he admitted, yanking on one ear thoughtfully. "But not just me. We all need to be able to go about unnoticed…."

After he glanced in Rose's direction, an unreadable expression on his face, the Doctor wandered out of the room and Rose heard the front door quietly open and close. She shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the conversation, which had continued without him.

"Seriously, Rose," Toshiko said, "you both need to look as different as possible."

"Well, I can handle that," Jackie said, "but I'm gonna need some supplies, and we still need food."

"And I need my stuff from the Hub," Toshiko added. "But I can't go because I need to monitor UNIT's satellite uplinks and communiques."

"Well, I can't sneak into the Hub," Gwen said pointedly. She glanced down at her stomach. "I can't really sneak anywhere these days." She raised her eyebrows at Owen and Ianto and then tossed Ianto the keys to her car. "Plus the Doctor said my car needs to be moved."

"We'll also need another car. The Monteo was spotted; they'll be looking for it now, so it should be moved as well. And we can't take any of our cars or the SUV. They'll be looking for those too."

"I think I can get us a car," Ianto said. He jerked his head towards Owen. "We'll go."

Owen turned and stared at him. " _We'll_ go?"

"Yes, you will," Rose answered.

"I'll make you a list," Jackie said.

~oOo~

Twenty minutes later, after visiting Tesco and loading everything on Jackie's list into their vehicle, Ianto Jones and Owen Harper parked a white minivan in a car park behind the Millennium Center. Before they had left the farmhouse, they had managed to get Rose's Mini Cooper hidden in the relatively empty end of the barn and the big, black Torchwood SUV hidden in a thick part of the forest, invisible from the house, the road and by air. With the vehicles hidden, the place looked as unoccupied as before the Doctor and Rose had moved in.

As soon as Ianto and Owen had arrived back in Cardiff, Ianto had gone to trade the Monteo for his sister's car. Meanwhile, Owen had abandoned Gwen's car in the parking garage of a hotel across from Millennium Stadium. There was a match on and the entire area was filled with cars and people, so they were able to easily get in and out unnoticed in the chaos surrounding the Stadium. When Ianto had picked the other man up, Owen had begun criticizing the vehicle Ianto had been driving.

And he was still complaining.

"It's a minivan," he said with distaste.

"It's a white minivan," Ianto said. "Do you know how many of those there are on the roads? It'll be easier to hide in that than any other vehicle."

"But it's still a minivan. And an old minivan at that."

"My sister has kids, and she needs this. Plus it's the only car I could get on short notice, so shut it."

As they walked across Roald Dahl Plass, Owen opened his mouth to retort, but then stopped short and fell uncharacteristically silent. Ianto looked at him, puzzled, and Owen pointed his finger in front of them. UNIT soldiers were heading down the stairs that led to the Hub entrance.

"What now?" Ianto whispered, not expecting an answer, but Owen gave him one anyway.

"Back door," he said quietly. Ianto nodded.

Less than a quarter of a mile to the south of the Tourist Office entrance, there was a hidden entrance to the disused sewers that Torchwood Three occupied. Neither of them had ever used it; in fact, neither one of them was quite sure where it was. But if they were going to get in without passing UNIT, they'd have to find it.

They walked along the pavement that curved around the bay, trying to look casual and hoping to go unnoticed. The skies had become a steely grey and had thick, dark clouds on the horizon, threatening later rain. It wasn't raining yet, although a mist was beginning to form in the air. Since that wasn't unusual for Cardiff, the walkway near the Plass was still crowded with people: cyclists, young couples walking hand in hand, parents pushing prams, teens on roller blades skating back and forth. They'd all be gone as soon as the storm hit, Ianto thought, but they hadn't left yet, and he worried that he and Owen would be spotted while they looked for the back entrance to the Hub. Thankfully, the crowd began to thin the further away they walked from the shopping district. Eventually the two men stopped and looked around in frustration.

"Where is it?" Owen hissed.

"Not sure," Ianto answered. "I just know it's here somewhere. Maybe we went too far."

"No, we couldn't have. Jake found it once and I remember distinctly him telling me it was under one of the piers. I just don't remember which one. Damn it," he growled, exasperated. "We'll just have to check all of them."

Since they were in a rush, they didn't want to go to the end of the pavement to the entrance to the pier area. Instead they checked to see if anyone was watching, which no one was, and then they climbed over the guardrail and slid down the gravel embankment to the water's edge.

"I'll check these, you check those." Ianto gritted his teeth as Owen's comment came out as an order, but he made his way to the first of the piers, while the other man walked the other direction. He found the entrance under the third one and gestured to Owen to join him.

The entrance was hidden from view by a fast growing vine that both men recognized as being of alien origin. The only reason it had not taken over the entire area was that it required iron to grow, and its location next to the bay, surrounded by rock and salt water and a wooden pier, kept its growth in check. In fact it shouldn't have been able to live there at all, unless it was growing on top of something made of iron.

"Jake must have planted it here to mask the entrance from view," Ianto said. He yanked on the vines. Underneath was a heavy iron door. And it was chained shut. And locked with a padlock that almost seemed to glow. They recognized that both were made from an unbreakable alien metal that had defied analysis.

"Shit," Owen said, staring at the lock. "How bad does Tosh need this stuff?"

"She wouldn't have asked us to get it for her if she didn't need it."

"She should have come and gotten it herself." He didn't bother to hide his irritation. "Next time I need something I'm sending her. I don't suppose you have a lock pick with you?"

"No," Ianto answered. "But we might be able to get in anyway."

"How?"

"Jake must have put this here. And he might have hidden a spare key as well." At the skeptical look on Owen's face, Ianto continued. "We need to at least look."

"It's worth a shot," he said grudgingly.

The two men searched the area, quickly finding a key hidden in a fake rock right next to the entrance. Owen rolled his eyes.

"Really?" Owen scoffed. "That's the best he could do? A fake rock?"

"Don't criticize. At least we can get in," Ianto said pointedly, unlocking the padlock. "Would you rather have risked dealing with UNIT?"

The door swung open easily, obviously having been oiled by Jake at the same time as he had put on the lock. The two men entered and made their way silently through the tunnel. Finally, after several minutes they found their way blocked by another heavy door.

"I doubt he hid the key to this one around here," Owen whispered. "There aren't any fake rocks lying around."

Ianto shot him a look. "Shut up, Owen," he whispered back. "The man's dead. Show some respect." He reached forward and grabbed the doorknob. To both of their surprise, it turned easily in his hand. Owen glanced at him and Ianto shrugged. "Works for me."

After going through the door, they found themselves behind the furnace in the utility cupboard in the basement. They could hear the voices of the UNIT soldiers above them. Owen looked at Ianto and jerked his head toward the door, and the other man nodded. They left the cupboard as quietly as possible and tiptoed to the bottom of the stairwell to listen.

A woman's voice echoed down from above.

" _It doesn't appear anyone is here. Let's finish up the search and get out of here. You two. Get down to the basement and check it out. Then meet us outside."_

_"Yes, Captain,_ " a man's voice answered.

As the sound of footsteps died away, Ianto and Owen backed away, further into the shadows. And then the man's voice echoed down the stairs, much louder than before; undoubtedly he was standing near the top of the stairwell.

" _People actually work here? In the sewer?_ "

A different woman answered, just as loudly.

" _Torchwood must be hard up for funds._ "

Owen snorted. "They don't know the half of it," he said under his breath.

" _I don't want to go down there._ " That was the man again. " _But at least it doesn't smell. Much._ "

" _Smells better than you do,_ " she told him.

" _Oi!_ " he replied indignantly. His protest was punctuated by a loud fart.

" _You were saying?_ " the woman responded with a laugh. " _No one's even here. I wonder where everyone is."_

_"Beats me. Who are these people we're looking for anyway?"_

_"Dunno. Don't care either. I just want to get this over with, get home to my boyfriend and have my tea."_

_"You hungry? I've got a bar of chocolate. I'll split it with you._ "

Owen smirked as he and Ianto looked at each other. "I wouldn't do that if I were them."

" _God, yes. All I've had today was a coffee._ "

" _It's a bit melted,_ " the man said apologetically.

" _Don't care. Just hand it over._ "

After a short silence, they heard the loud beating of wings followed by an unearthly screech.

" _Bloody hell!_ " the man yelled. _"What the fuck was that?"_

_"I don't know and I don't care! Just keep it away from me!"_

_"Shit! Here it comes again!"_

"Time for a little fun," Owen whispered.

He walked back to the utility cupboard which held, among other things, the circuit breakers for the Hub. He flipped some switches and plunged the entire facility into darkness. Owen and Ianto heard another screech. Shots rang out and the screeching became louder and more frequent.

" _I don't care who is down there! I'm getting the hell out of here!_ "

The sounds of two people running echoed from above. In the darkness of the stairwell, Ianto grinned. "Good girl."

~oOo~

Rose wandered the house, a bundle of nervous energy. She wanted to get moving, get going, do something, but realistically there was nothing for her to do. Toshiko needed to work on passports for them, Gwen wanted to make their tea, and her mum wanted to help her change the way she looked, but no one could do anything until Owen and Ianto got back.

But the truth was that the main reason she was anxious was the Doctor. She didn't know what to do about him. She had told him they'd sort their problems after they had sorted everything else, but she wasn't sure she wanted to wait for that. The two of them being at odds was just too distracting from what they needed to do. They really needed to clear the air before they went to London. Besides, she wasn't angry anymore; well, she was, but not nearly as angry as she had been. And she really didn't like it when they were at odds. Not that they were at odds all that often. Other than the occasional squabble about the position of the toilet seat and his unsanitary habit of sticking his fingers in all the jam jars, they really hadn't argued since they had been reunited.

When she had gotten home, he had looked like he wanted to talk, she reminded herself. Maybe he was feeling the same way she was, wanting to sort this but not exactly knowing how to start.

_This is nuts_ , she told herself. _What am I waiting for?_

She knew he wasn't in the house. The last she had seen him, he was wandering off to do something, who knows what, and she guessed he was in his workshop.

Sure enough, he was there. He was sitting at the workbench, glasses on and sonic in hand, peering through a magnifying glass similar to the one that her stepfather owned. He was making tiny adjustments to something she couldn't identify.

She sat down across from him and waited for him to acknowledge her.

"Perception filters," he eventually said, not looking up at her. "One for each of us. I usually make them out of TARDIS keys, but as I don't have any of those at the moment, I had to use pieces of the TARDIS itself."

"Is that going to cause any problems for it?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Shouldn't. I used small pieces of the bark on the outside of the TARDIS rather than the coral itself. I tried using leaves, but it wasn't working." He paused, and then took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm sorry, Rose, for not telling you about my contact with him."

She paused for a moment before answering. "I understand why you didn't tell me. I really, _really_ don't agree with it, but I understand."

"And I understand why you were upset."

"Are you still in telepathic contact with him?" she asked quietly.

"No. It was just that first week I was here. The last time was that time in Cardiff when I…." His voice trailed off.

"When you what?" she prompted when he didn't continue. And then all at once she knew. "When I found you on the balcony."

"Yeah."

"What did he say to you?" she said, angry on his behalf, thinking about how cruel the Time Lord had been to him on the beach.

"Nothing." He peeked up at her and saw disbelief written all over her face. "Honestly. He didn't say anything in particular. I was just a bit… volatile that night."

Shamefaced, she remembered her own role in the volatility of the evening; how when she had been drunk, she had told him she had regretted kissing him on the beach.

"I'm sorry about what I said to you that night," she said quietly. "I wanted to apologize straight away, but I was drunk and then things got crazy…."

"Rose, it's alright." He smiled at her before looking down again at what he was doing. "This has been a difficult situation for all of us. And I think we've more than made up for it in the snogging department."

She smiled back briefly before becoming more somber. She didn't know how to ask this, or even if she should, but she had to know.

"Doctor, was he…?" Her voice broke, and she couldn't continue the thought.

He stilled. "Was he alright?" he finished for her after a moment.

"Yeah."

He didn't answer right away, clearly debating what to tell her. He finally decided on honesty.

"Let's put it this way," he said. "He was traveling alone and had been alone for a while. And we never do well alone."

She closed her eyes tightly and bit her lip, fighting tears for the Doctor who was a universe away.

The Doctor glanced up and saw her expression but didn't comment on it despite a tiny twinge of jealousy. He was worried about his other self as well.

Finally Rose composed herself. On the drive to London she had thought long and hard about not only what she wanted to say to him but what he needed to hear. She took a deep breath.

"Doctor, I don't know how to fix this," she said. "I don't know how to shut off my feelings towards him. You are the same person. Shutting them off towards him would kinda be like shutting them off towards you as well. But you need to know I love you, this you, and you have nothing to be jealous over. Not towards anyone. Not even him. I am _never_ gonna leave you."

He opened his mouth to respond but before he could answer, they heard Jackie yell her name. The Doctor winced.

"Well, if they didn't know where we were before, they do now."

Rose smiled ruefully. "Yeah, she always could yell for England. When I was growing up, I could hear her yell for me no matter where I was on the Estate." When she got up and turned towards the door, he also stood up.

"Rose." She turned back to face him and he walked around the workbench to stand next to her. "Are we… are we okay?"

"Yes," she said. She smiled up at him. "No, we're better than okay. We're great. We're fantastic." He grinned in relief. When he began to pull her into a tight hug, she pulled his head down to give him a thorough snog.

They broke apart at the sound of the door opening.

"Oh, sorry," Toshiko said, pausing at the door. "Didn't mean to interrupt anything."

Through the open door, they heard Jackie holler for Rose again. "Don't worry about it, Tosh," she said. "I was just going." She stood on tiptoe to give the Doctor one last kiss and then quickly walked out of the barn. After she left, Toshiko crossed over to him.

"Ianto and Owen just got back from the Hub," she said. "I need to use your computer again to make your passports. Any particular names you'd like me to use?"

And he said the first two names that popped into mind.


	30. Chapter 29

After he finished making the perception filters, the Doctor wandered back into the house. As he walked through the front door, he sniffed and then wrinkled his nose. There was an odd odor pervading the house. He grimaced as he wondered who was cooking. Even Jackie's cooking didn't smell that bad.

He looked around the room. Gwen was sitting on the sofa watching telly with Tony, but no one else appeared to be about.

"Where is everyone?" he asked her.

"Owen and Ianto are in the kitchen, setting the table for our tea, and Jackie and Rose are off somewhere, not exactly sure where. I think they went upstairs. Before they left, Jackie said to tell you they'd be done in about…" she glanced at her watch. "A half an hour or so."

"Half an hour!" the Doctor protested. "We need to get going!"

"Well, you're not ready yet, either. You need to change," Gwen told him firmly.

"But I've got…" he said, holding out his hand. The perception filters he had made hung from thin cords looped around his hand.

"I don't care what you've got; you should change just in case. Now go," she said. He raised one eyebrow.

"Yes, ma'am," he said with a mock salute. "But I should tell you; almost everything I own basically looks like this. Unless you think I should go in my pyjamas and dressing gown."

She looked at him evenly. "If necessary," she said, trying to hide a smirk.

His mouth quirked in amusement. "Already saved one world in jimjams and a dressing gown; I suppose I could save another."

There was definitely a story there, Gwen thought, and one she'd love to hear, but they didn't have time for that at the moment. Instead of asking about it, she looked at him pointedly and jerked her head at the stairwell. He stood and stared at her for a moment before bowing to the inevitable.

As the Doctor walked up the stairs, he noticed that the bathroom door at the top of the stairs was closed. That was odd. They didn't normally use that bathroom; it was designed to be used by the occupants of the other bedrooms. He and Rose usually either used their en suite or the loo off the kitchen. As he neared the room, the strange odor grew stronger, and it seemed to be emanating from there. Well, at least it's not the food, he thought in relief. The smell was vaguely familiar; it was a combination of chemicals he felt he should have recognized but he couldn't immediately identify them. And mixed in with the rest was definitely a blend of artificial floral scents and shampoo. His sense of smell was still keener than a human's, but he couldn't always distinguish individual chemicals in a mixture by scent alone anymore. Now if he could taste them, however….

"Rose?" he called.

"Be out in a bit," she called back.

"Go away." The sound of Jackie's voice coming from the bathroom was enough to make him immediately retreat to his bedroom. Whatever Rose was doing in there, if Jackie was involved he was certain he didn't want to know about it.

Once in his room, the Doctor opened up the walk-in wardrobe he shared with Rose and looked through his clothes. Pinstriped suits, primarily in blue but one in brown. A couple of pairs of dark trousers. Button down shirts and ties, rarely worn because he usually preferred tees in this body. Oh, and in the way back, a pair of jeans and a black leather jacket. He had forgotten about those.

To his surprise, he felt oddly drawn to the jacket. Oddly, because he rarely favored more than one style of clothing during any particular incarnation. Instead, he almost always wore variations on a theme: velvet smoking jackets in a variety of colors; a long, multicolored scarf to an even longer one in shades of burgundy; a leather jacket and jumpers; brown pinstripes and blue ones.

He pursed his lips thoughtfully and frowned. Was it the human in him that drew him to the jacket? For a moment he wondered if Donna through the metacrisis was somehow influencing him in this as she still did his speech patterns sometimes. That was a frightening thought. As brilliant as Donna was, and as much as he had come to love her as a sister in their time together, he was more than a bit uncomfortable with the idea she might have affected this version of him to that extent.

Then the Doctor suddenly remembered Rose's comment a few weeks earlier; she had mentioned that he sometimes reminded her of his ninth self. And on the beach in Norway, his other self had accused him of being like that version of him. Perhaps there was more to it than just an occasional accent shift.

Slowly he drew his fingertip along the shoulder of the jacket. Rose had given it to him, along with a pair of blue jeans, when they had first arrived in Cardiff. At the time she had said she just wanted to see him in them, so he had obligingly put them on… and they had stayed on for about the five seconds it took for Rose to pull them off again. He smiled briefly at his memory of what had happened after that.

But looking sexy wasn't why he had worn a leather jacket back in his ninth incarnation. He had actually begun wearing one towards the end of his eighth incarnation. It had given him a feeling of power, of strength, and of control of himself during the events of the Time War, and later it had been his suit of armor, his protection from the universe. And the universe's protection from him.

For a moment he thought about what they faced in London and for a moment he allowed the anger that he had been burying to rise to the surface. They had arrested Pete and had threatened Jackie and Tony. They had attacked his family, and in his mind that made things oh, so very simple.

He blinked. He thought of Jackie as family. When he had begun thinking of her as more than just Rose's mum? He knew that he had thought of Rose that way for a very long time, had felt a connection to her and felt protective of her long before he had admitted it to himself, but when had he begun thinking of Jackie that way?

After a moment's thought, he realized it had been before the battle of Canary Wharf, when he knew that Jackie was in danger because of her connection to him. Or maybe it was even before that, when they had been dealing with Elton Pope. She hadn't truly been in danger with Elton, but they hadn't known it at the time.

But now she really was in danger. As were Pete and Tony.

That would not stand. No one could threaten his family and get away with it.

With a jerk, he pulled the jacket out of the wardrobe and quickly dressed.

~oOo~

Tea had ended up being a simple affair, just sandwiches and crisps eaten around the table in the kitchen. As there weren't quite enough chairs to go around, the Doctor stood to one side, leaning against the counter as he ate.

When he had come down from upstairs, wearing a snug black t-shirt along with the jeans and leather jacket Rose had given him, Gwen and Tosh had gaped at him.

"What?" he had asked, quickly glancing down at himself. Then he had looked up at Gwen. "You told me to try and look different. Isn't this different enough?"

"Yeah," she had said after a moment, her eyes wide. "You look different enough."

"Oh, yes. You look very different," Toshiko had added, nodding repeatedly, and Ianto and Owen had snickered at the women's reactions.

They were just finishing their tea when Rose and Jackie entered the room. When the Doctor saw them enter, his jaw dropped. Rose was also wearing jeans and a tee, with her ginger hair loose about her shoulders. Her _ginger_ hair.

Now everyone stared at her for a moment, stunned into silence.

Tony chimed in first. "Rose, you look different."

"Ooo, that looks good," Toshiko said next.

"You look fantastic," Gwen said at the same time. "And really different. If I didn't know you so well, I might not have recognized you."

The Doctor, on the other hand, was completely unable to form a coherent response.

Rose for her part was surprised at how different the Doctor looked as well. He had restyled his hair to be a bit more flat, and if he had been clean shaven, he'd have looked exactly as he had when he regenerated from his ninth incarnation to his tenth. As it was, between his clothes, his hair, and his scruffy, unshaven face, he almost looked like a different person. Which was the point, she reminded herself.

Rose noticed he was still staring at her, jaw slack, eyes a tiny bit glazed. Biting her lip to hide a grin, she crossed the room to stand next to him. She pushed a chunk of her newly dyed hair behind one ear. "Jealous much?" she said in a low voice.

The Doctor swallowed and blinked and then reached up and tentatively touched her hair. "Oh, Rose Tyler, jealousy is _not_ what I'm feeling right now." He cleared his throat. "But we don't have time for that. Jackie," he said, turning to her, "maybe you could take Tony back to the living room and put the television on for him again."

"But I want to stay here," Tony whinged.

"We have to talk about some grown up stuff and you'd be very bored," Rose told him. "But if you're very good, you can have some of the Doctor's biscuits in a little bit."

"Alright," the little boy said grudgingly and allowed himself to be led out by his mother.

"Okay, we need a plan," Rose said as soon as they had left the room.

"First, let me catch you up on what we were talking about before you got back," said the Doctor. He quickly summarized the fact that Harrison Keeling, head of the GBF, had been made the head of UNIT, and that Lisa Hallett had been a member of the GBF at one time. He also told her of their suspicions that whoever was the traitor at Torchwood was probably connected to the GBF as well.

"And while I was on the computer," Toshiko interjected, "I pulled up a list of all the members of the GBF going back to the group's beginnings and correlated it to past and present members of Torchwood. Other than Lisa, I couldn't find anyone. Now that could be because they are hiding their memberships, or because they were part of the group but not actual members."

"And we can't question Lisa because she doesn't remember anything," Rose said thoughtfully. "And we don't even know for certain if she was Ret-conned or not."

"Let's assume for the sake of argument that she was," the Doctor said. "Would that mean that whoever gave it to her was part of the medical staff?"

Rose shook her head. "No, not necessarily. The medical staff has it, of course, but field agents and containment teams carry it as well. Plus anyone who works in supplies could get their hands on it, too."

"How much memory did she lose again?" Owen asked.

"Over five years," she answered, and Owen grimaced.

"That would take a huge dose. If she were Ret-conned, they either wanted to make sure she forgot everything, or they didn't know what they were doing. With that much, she's lucky it didn't kill her."

"We still aren't sure that it was Ret-con," Rose told him. "It might not have been. Frank Collins said she tested negative for it."

"Ret-con is notoriously hard to test for," Owen said. "Depending on when she was tested, her body may have metabolized it all."

"Owen," Rose said thoughtfully, "if someone is Ret-conned, how does that work? Are the memories completely gone, or can they be retrieved?"

"From the brain scans we've done on people who have been Ret-conned," he answered, "it appears that recent memories are completely gone. Memories from longer ago than about a week, give or take a couple of days, may or may not be gone. In some people, the brain scans seem to indicate that the memories have been completely wiped, in others it looks like the memories are still there but can't be retrieved for some reason."

"Torchwood has been giving Ret-con to people and experimenting on them?" The Doctor was outraged.

"In my defense, this was all before my time," Harper replied, throwing his hands up. "I've only seen the reports. Required reading for anyone who has held a medical position at Torchwood. And before you get your knickers in a twist, it was before Director Tyler's time as well. The experiments and testing ended more than a decade ago. Since Tyler's father took over, all human experiments have stopped."

Rose glanced at the Doctor. He still looked furious, despite the other man's assurances. She laid a hand on his arm, and he calmed down outwardly, but in his eyes Rose could still see him seething beneath the surface. She turned back to Owen.

"So if they are still there, is there any way someone else can get at them? Like with telepathy or something?"

"I don't know," Owen replied. "Don't know if it's ever been attempted, in fact. The best I can give you is a firm maybe."

Rose raised her eyebrows at the Doctor, who looked unhappy.

"You could try," she said.

"I'd need her consent," he told her. "I won't do it without her consent. You know that. And there's very little chance she'd give her consent to have me enter her mind, because she would see me as a total stranger. Although it would probably be worse if she actually remembered me."

"I might be able to convince her."

The Doctor was startled. Ianto had been so quiet up until then that he had forgotten the younger man was in the room.

"We aren't together anymore, but she still trusts me," Ianto continued. "If it worked, would you just be able to see her memories, or would she be able to actually get her memory back?"

The Doctor took a deep breath. "If everything went well, she'd be able to get her memories back. Or at least some of them. But there are no guarantees."

"Is there any risk to her?" Ianto asked.

"No more so than any other time someone has telepathic contact with someone else," he answered.

"I think she'd do it. She wants to get her memories back. I think she'd do anything to have a chance at that."

A loud chime echoed through the room and automatically they all, except for the Doctor, reached for their mobiles.

"It's mine," Toshiko said, glancing at the text she had received. After she read it, she spoke. "Rose, I have a friend in IT at Torchwood Four. She said that all the department heads have been arrested for treason and there's a warrant out for Gwen's arrest."

Rose swore under her breath and she and the Doctor exchanged worried glances.

Gwen snorted. "Me? Why me?"

"I'm assuming that it's because you are still listed as the head of Torchwood Three," Tosh answered. Her mobile chimed again, and she quickly read the next message. "She also says the rest of us are listed as persons of interest and are wanted for questioning."

"Tosh, is there any way to see if there's a Martha Jones on the list of department heads who have been arrested?" the Doctor asked.

"Let me ask," she said, typing rapidly into her phone. After a moment her mobile chimed again. "Is Martha Jones a doctor? Because there's a Dr. M Jones on the list."

This time it was the Doctor who swore. "We should never have gotten her involved in this," he snapped.

"We'll sort this and get her out," Rose said, trying to reassure him. "She'll be alright."

He nodded, trying to convince himself that she was right. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself. It was only partially successful.

"Tosh, does anyone know where my dad and the others are being held?" Rose asked.

"Not yet," she replied after another flurry of texts. "I've asked her to let me know if she finds out."

Another chime had them all reaching for their mobiles again. This time it was Ianto's.

"Rose," he said, "they've officially impounded the mansion. They are currently searching it for contraband items."

The Doctor shot a glance at Rose. "Pete was storing the battery that held the Kern in his safe at the mansion."

She shook her head. "I cleaned out the safe before I came. It's in my knapsack."

"We need to put it somewhere safe," he told her.

Rose retrieved her knapsack from the living room and placed it on the counter next to him. "I really need to put Dad's papers somewhere safe as well." She pulled everything out of the bag and laid it all on the counter. He picked up the battery out of the pile.

"Now I'll just have to find a place to store this safely," he said. He turned it over in his hands. "Hmmm," he said, frowning. He pulled out his glasses and peered at the bottom of the battery. "Where did you get this?" he asked.

"Dad's safe. Why?"

"Rose, this isn't the battery with the Kern in it."

"What? Are you sure?" she asked.

"This isn't the battery that I gave Pete," he said grimly. "It just looks like it. Do you see this code?" The Doctor pointed out the numbers imprinted along the bottom. "It says 3457986. The one I gave him said 3745982."

"How can you be so sure of the number?" Owen asked.

"Owen, I can speak five billion languages. I know the names of every planet orbiting around every star in a million separate galaxies. I can calculate in my head the time it takes for the energy of a supernova to travel from the far side of the Milky Way to the Earth down to the millisecond. I think I can remember a simple seven digit code off the bottom of a battery."

"But how could this not be the battery?" Rose asked. "Dad took it straight home and put it in the safe after you handed it to him. And then you saw it the night of the break-in."

He blinked and ran his free hand through his hair, causing it to stand on end. "I did see it. But I didn't take a good look at it. I must have seen this one. This must have been what the intruder was looking for. The battery that held the Kern. He planted the bugs and exchanged that battery for this one." He stared at her. "This has all suddenly become a lot more complicated."

~oOo~

Harrison Keeling sat at his desk at Torchwood Four, trying to make sense of the paperwork in front of him. By firing all the key staff members, and having all the department heads arrested, he had left himself no one experienced enough to run the day to day operations at Torchwood. Even if he didn't replace Pete Tyler, he needed to hire some people for the other positions. Or transfer them from other branches of UNIT. Perhaps some people from the NSA or the ISS. He needed to check to see who in those organizations was also a member of the GBF and thus loyal to him.

Well, he didn't have time to make heads nor tails of the mess on his desk. He needed to get ready for the meeting. He reached over to call for his assistant and then remembered he didn't have one here. His personal assistant was still supervising the completion of several projects at the GBF headquarters and hadn't begun working in this office. He called down to security to let them know he was leaving and to ring his partner if there were any emergencies that evening.

As he was walking out the door to his office, the telephone on his desk rang. He glanced at his watch and then at the phone; he really needed to leave. But it could be important, he told himself. Again cursing his lack of an assistant, he turned back.

"Keeling," he answered.

_"Director, this is General Bambera. My men have thoroughly searched the flat in Cardiff as well as Torchwood Three as you requested. They were both empty, and the flat appeared to have been vacant for some time."_

Keeling swore under his breath.

_"Sir?"_

"Nothing," he replied. "Continue to search the area and keep me informed as to what you find."

Almost as he replaced the receiver in the cradle, the phone rang again. He'd never get out of here, he thought, as he answered the telephone once again.

_"Director, this is Darla Henning. We finished our examination of Pete Tyler's holdings and we only found one more item of interest. Evidently a few weeks ago he had his personal lawyers set up a complicated trust designed to hide the purchase of a piece of property outside of Cardiff. It appears to be an old farmhouse that sits on about ten acres of property."_

His heart began to pound with excitement.

"Thank you, Ms. Henning," he said. "Excellent work."

After he rang off, he said one word before ringing General Bambera back.

"Gotcha."


	31. Chapter 30

Torchwood Four's detention facility, nicknamed the Dungeon by the staff, was located in the second to the lowest subbasement and was only accessible two ways. The first was a flight of stairs descending four levels from the ground floor. It had been put in as an afterthought, and served only as a fire escape. The stairwell terminated at the makeshift jail; there were no exit doors to the lower level offices, the supplies department or the armory. The holding cells were on the same level as the laundry, but there was no access between them; a cinderblock and concrete wall stood between them. Only the archives were on a lower level.

The primary, and only other, way to the cells was a single dedicated lift at the far end of the main building. It required an ID card to operate and in addition to having CCTV, automatically logged who had accessed it.

Typically the Dungeon was mostly empty, serving as a holding center for dangerous aliens who were being deported and, occasionally, as a drunk tank for those who had imbibed a little too much of the local amenities.

Today, however, the Dungeon was full up, ironically filled with the Torchwood employees that Harrison Keeling had had arrested.

But Pete Tyler didn't know that.

The cell containing the former director of Torchwood was barely larger than a typical pantry and contained only the most necessary items. A narrow shelf made from an unbreakable alien polymer jutted out from one of the side walls and served as a bed. A stainless steel toilet without a seat was installed against the far wall, and next to it stood a matching cold water sink. The door contained a window near the top for guards to monitor the occupant, and a slot at the bottom of the door allowed food to be pushed in. Also based on alien technology, the slot sealed up so tightly that the room was virtually soundproof when it was closed.

Frustrated and bored and more than a little angry, Pete paced the tiny room. It wasn't really big enough for real pacing. It only took him four steps to cross the entire distance.

Four steps forward. Four steps back.

He was worried about Jackie and Tony. He hoped Rose had gotten the message he had left with Martha and had managed to get them out of the mansion and out of London.

Four steps forward.

He stopped and ran a hand over his short, thinning hair. He hoped he hadn't been wrong to trust Martha with the message. But Jackie trusted her, Rose trusted her, and the Doctor had trusted the parallel Martha well enough to travel with her. But what's done is done, he thought. Either she managed to get the message to Rose or she hadn't, and there was nothing he could do about it now.

He resumed pacing.

Four steps back.

He wasn't sure if he wanted the Doctor and Rose to come and sort this or get Jackie and Tony to safety. True, he had seen the Doctor sort Daleks and Cybermen, but this was Jackie and Tony. Jackie, his second chance at love. And Tony, the son he'd thought he'd never have.

Four steps forward.

But Keeling was looking for the Doctor. And he had the entire intelligence community in the form of UNIT aiding him.

Four steps back.

If UNIT managed to capture the Doctor, this whole situation could get much worse.

Four steps forward.

Much, much worse.

Four steps back.

And not just for them.

Four steps forward.

For everyone in the country.

Four steps back.

Four steps forward.

Four steps back.

~oOo~

Two corridors over from Pete Tyler, in an identical room to his, Martha Jones sat on her bunk, back against the wall and feet pulled up in front of her. She had a splitting headache, and her throat was burning. After the soldiers had arrested her and locked her in the cell, she had spent at least ten minutes screaming at the top of her lungs that her arrest had been a mistake, and now she had a case of laryngitis.

Rose had told her working for Torchwood would be dangerous, Martha reminded herself, and she'd thought she was prepared for it. But she had believed the danger would come from aliens; it hadn't occurred to her that the danger would come from their own government.

And she loved her new job, or at least she had until about an hour ago. But now she was regretting her decision to work for Torchwood, primarily because of the fact that her family wouldn't understand why she had been arrested. They still believed she was in private practice; she had never told them she had changed jobs.

But even more than that, she was concerned about what Tom would think. They were engaged. They were supposed to get married. And here she was, keeping secrets from him. She shouldn't be doing that.

That was assuming any of them ever found out she had been arrested. They could just make her disappear. Tom and her family might never know what had happened to her.

Thinking of Tom, she wondered where he was. Was it Nigeria this week, or Botswana? She realized she didn't remember. It had been weeks since they had last spoken, over a week since their last flurry of texts, and she really, really missed him. Especially now.

This business of lying to Tom, even by omission, couldn't continue. She'd have to talk to Rose about this when she got out of here.

If she got out of here.

~oOo~

"So the Kern are involved in this?" Rose asked.

"Must be," the Doctor answered. "I did say I wasn't sure about two of them. One, or maybe both, must have managed to take over people rather than dying like I thought. Either that or someone just found out about them and wants to use them in some way."

"Excuse me," Gwen said, "but what exactly are the Kern?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer but Rose beat him to it.

"They're this… energy creature that tries to take over people and if they can't, they absorb them somehow."

The Doctor shrugged. It was as good a description as any.

"They were behind the disappearances of all those people in London a few weeks ago," Rose continued. "One had taken over Lisa, and they were using her to try and invade the Earth. We managed to get it out of her, and then the Doctor and I sorted the rest." She glanced over at him before she turned back to her. "Or at least we thought we had."

"So since they were made of energy, you managed to somehow store them in a battery, and then someone stole it?" Toshiko asked.

Rose nodded. "Right out from under our noses. And they must have known what it looked like, because they managed to substitute that for ours." She pointed at the battery which now lay on the table in front of them.

"Rose," the Doctor said thoughtfully. "The Kern were very specific. They had said they had been invited by those who wished to rule. Remember? Maybe they had been invited by the GBF. But there's still something I'm missing." Grimacing, he rapped his forehead with his tightly closed fist. "Think, think, think." He closed his eyes as he first tried to recall his conversation with the Kern at the beacon and then his interview with Lisa Hallett after she had been captured by Rose.

Suddenly his eyes flew open. "Oh, I've been so stupid! She told us herself! When I was interviewing her, she told me she wasn't working alone. I thought at the time she meant her partner, Sean Callahan, but she didn't. She meant the GBF and her partner at Torchwood."

He ran a hand through his hair and groaned. "And so on top of rescuing Pete and Martha, figuring out who the traitor is, stopping the GBF and straightening out the country, we also have to find the battery that contains the Kern, and any other stray Kern that got away the last time."

"And try to restore Lisa's memories," Ianto said.

"And try to restore Lisa Hallett's memories and see if she can provide us with any more information about the GBF, the traitor, the Kern… well, all of this mess really. She seems to be the key to all of this."

"And our plan to do all of this is…" Owen began.

"There is no plan," Rose said wryly. "The Doctor doesn't usually do plans. He usually just makes it up as he goes."

"And it always works," he said with a broad grin. "Well, I say always… more, usually. Well, I say usually…." His grin turned into a grimace and the others began to look concerned. The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"So let me get this straight," Owen interjected. "The six of us are going to take on the entire forces of UNIT and try to stop an alien invasion?"

"We do have one advantage over them," Ianto stated. When everyone else looked puzzled, he continued. "Harrison Keeling is a political advisor and lobbyist. He's never even worked for an intelligence agency, let alone run one."

"We've got one more thing they don't have. We've got the Doctor," Rose said. She reached over, grabbed the Doctor's hand and squeezed it. "We can do this, and we will do this."

"Rose Tyler, you are fantastic, absolutely fantastic," he said. For a moment their eyes met and they smiled at one another.

The sound of Gwen clearing her throat brought them back to the present.

"Oh, oh yes. Now these are perception filters," the Doctor said. He pulled a handful of necklaces out of his pocket and handed one to each of them. "I made one for each of us, including Jackie and Tony. They don't work quite as well as the ones I usually make, but they should be good enough."

"What's a perception filter?" Ianto asked.

"It's a device that makes something difficult to see. It doesn't make it invisible, just unnoticeable. If you wear one, people around you won't know you're there, unless they knew you were there to begin with."

Everyone, with the exception of Rose, looked at him blankly.

"Kinda like the TARDIS when we were in Cardiff, right?" she asked. The Doctor beamed at her and then turned to the others.

"You know how you can walk right by something in a city every single day and never notice it?" he asked them. "A perception filter can do that." At the skeptical expressions on the others' faces, he sniffed. "C'mere, Rose." He dropped one of the perception filters around her neck, and the others stared in amazement.

"Wow," Toshiko said. "I can still sort of see her, but it's almost like I don't want to see her."

"The effect is even stronger if you don't know the person is there in the first place," he told her. He walked to the kitchen door. "Oi, Jackie, come here for tick, will you?"

Jackie walked in, scowling slightly. "You didn't need to shout. 'S not like your house is all that big."

"Sorry," he responded, not sounding apologetic at all. "Listen, have you seen Rose anywhere? We really need to get going and she wandered off somewhere. You know how she is, always wandering off. Honestly, I can never keep track of her from one minute to the next. Never could, actually. Got herself into more trouble that way… Ow!" He winced and began to rub his upper arm vigorously.

Jackie stared at him with a look that said she thought he was insane. Which was actually the usual way she looked at him.

"I don't know where she is," she said. "Did you look upstairs?"

"I'm right here, Mum," Rose said, taking the perception filter off. "The Doctor was just trying to demonstrate this."

Jackie stared wide-eyed at her daughter suddenly appearing from out of nowhere as Rose handed her the perception filter necklace she had been wearing.

"What's this, then?" she asked, turning it over in her hands as she examined it. "Is it kinda like an invisibility cloak?"

Everyone besides the Doctor and Rose looked puzzled at her comment.

"What's an…" Gwen began, but the Doctor interrupted her.

"No, Jackie, it's a perception filter. It's… it's…." He scratched the back of his neck, trying to figure out how to explain it to her. Finally he sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, Jackie, it's kinda like an invisibility cloak."

"What's an…" Gwen began again, but now Toshiko interrupted her.

"When Owen and Ianto went back to the Hub, I had them bring back all of the passports I've created for us over the years," she said. She crossed over to the counter opposite the table, pulled them out of her bag and began passing them out. "To get through the checkpoints, the government won't accept anything but the new registration cards from residents. Since we can't use them, we'll have to try and pass as tourists. I made passports for each of you and since I knew what Jackie was doing with Rose, I manipulated her picture and changed her information a bit to reflect her new hair color. On yours, all I could do was change the color of the suit you were wearing," she said. She held out their new passports and the Doctor grabbed both of them, immediately sticking them in an inside pocket of his jacket. "Ianto is from Canada," Toshiko told them. "Owen is from Australia, I'm from Japan, and the two of you are from America. Gwen, I figured you'd be staying here, but I had them bring yours just in case. I didn't have time to make ones for Jackie or Tony."

"Hopefully they won't need them," Rose said.

"But we'll still need to get in places." The Doctor ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "The perception filters and fake passports can only do so much. There are going to be times when we have to actually deal with people and the passports will only take us so far. And we don't have enough time for Tosh to create all the paperwork we need. If only I had my psychic paper."

Rose blinked. "What did you say?"

"I said 'if only I had my psychic paper'. I had an extra one at one point, but I lost it somehow, years ago, so I wasn't able to bring one with me."

Rose stared at him wide-eyed. "Come with me." She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room.

He followed her up the stairs to their bedroom. She rushed to the bed and immediately dropped to the floor and began to rummage under it. After a moment she hauled out a large shoe box which she set on the bed. "Where is it? Where is it?" she muttered under her breath as she sifted through its contents. "It has to be here somewhere." She finally gave up searching and dumped everything out onto the bed. Photos spilled out all over. Most were of Rose and her family, but some he recognized as coming from their travels together and he remembered that she had had photos stored on her camera phones when she had been trapped here.

"Rose, I really don't think this is the time for you to be going through old photos," he told her, frowning. She ignored him.

"Help me look," she ordered.

"What exactly are we looking for?" he asked, wondering why they were spending time on this. She ignored his comment and continued to push the photos around on the bed.

"Ha! There it is," she said excitedly, pulling a small wallet from the center of the pile. "I knew I had it somewhere."

"My psychic paper! But how did you get it?" he exclaimed, snatching it out of her hand. He grinned at her excitedly.

"I borrowed it at Canary Wharf," she told him. "I just never had the chance to give it back to you. I used it for a little while here, but I was never able to control what it said as well as you did so I stopped using it. I forgot I even had it until you mentioned it."

"Oh, this is brilliant!" He took her face in his hands and gave her a quick kiss before they rushed back to the kitchen, leaving the photos spread out over the bed.

"The question is: who's going to stay here with Gwen?" Ianto was saying when they reentered the room.

"What do you mean, 'who's going to stay here with Gwen?'" Gwen demanded. "No one has to stay here with me. I can take care of myself; I don't need a babysitter. Ianto, you need to be there to convince Lisa to let the Doctor read her mind. Owen needs to be there if anything goes wrong. Tosh needs to go to monitor UNIT's communications and plans, and the Doctor and Rose need to go to sort this."

"Gwen, I hate to tell you this, but you're pregnant," Owen deadpanned. "You can hardly get out of a chair by yourself."

Gwen's look shot daggers at him, but before she could retort, Rose laid a hand on her arm and jerked her head at the other side of the room. Gwen rose and followed her so they could talk privately.

"Gwen, what about Mum and Tony?" she asked quietly. "I know you can take care of yourself, but someone has to watch out for them."

"I can do that, too," she told her confidently. "I'm not sick, I'm pregnant. If it comes down to it, I can protect them. Besides, Rhys should be here any time now. Although I'd probably have to take care of him, too." She smiled wryly. "Besides, I'm not exactly without resources. I brought a few things from the Hub myself."

Rose raised an eyebrow before grinning at her. "Just keep them safe, Gwen. Mum, Tony _and_ your baby."

"Rose, don't you worry about a thing."

"And if things get really crazy," Rose added, "the Doctor and I have a bit of a secret hiding place out in the woods. I think he's telling Mum about it now." She gestured at the other side of the room. The Doctor and Jackie were talking quietly yet animatedly about something. All heads turned as their voices grew louder.

"You three will be safer in there than anywhere else on the planet, Jackie. The combined hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get in."

Jackie let out a snort of derision. "It's not Genghis Khan I'm worried about," she said sharply. "And if we end up on Pluto, I'm gonna kill you."


	32. Chapter 31

Jake Simmonds groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. Everything hurt. His head pounded with every beat of his heart, starting at his temples, climbing to the crown of his head and descending into his ears and jaw. Even his hair hurt. He tried to open his eyes—one was so swollen it was only able to open partway—to try to figure out where he was, and he swore when it only made his headache worse.

He was lying on some sort of hard bed or bunk, and he could feel the weight of handcuffs around his left wrist. So he was chained to it, he thought. And wherever he was, it was dark. Although with his headache that wasn't all bad, he thought ruefully. Even after his eyes adjusted to the extremely dim light, he could barely make out the features of the room. All he could really tell was that he was in a small room barely larger than a cupboard. And for some unknown reason it looked familiar to him.

Well, he may not know where he was, but he could figure out how he was. Mindful of his injuries, he carefully sat up. He tried to take a deep breath and hissed when he felt shooting pain in his left side. He gingerly touched where he had felt the pain. Cracked ribs. Probably two or three based on the fact that it hurt more, and over a wider area, than the time he only had one. And he was having trouble breathing through his nose; it was possibly broken. With his right hand he tentatively touched it. Not possibly. Definitely. And he had at least two missing teeth, top and bottom, right hand side. Once he realized they were gone, he couldn't keep his tongue from prodding the vacant spaces, despite the pain. Thankfully his jaw was still intact, he thought, as he moved it from side to side. At least that was something.

Something hurt inside too, front and back, and he felt like throwing up. Bruised kidney? Spleen? He didn't think it was too bad, whatever it was, because he was still able to concentrate despite the pain. But he'd need a doctor's examination to be certain.

How the hell did he get in this condition? The last thing he remembered was talking to Audrey about… something. Shit, what was it? An image of her sitting at a table, nose in a book, flashed through his mind. And he was… damn, this headache was bad. He was… on the computer. That's right. He was on the computer, and Audrey was talking about some book… no, that wasn't right. What was it? She was saying something about….

All of a sudden his memories came flooding back. He had narrowed the traitor down to two people and couldn't get any signal on his mobile for some reason so he had gone outside to try and call Pete. He had been approached by a couple of people he had thought at first were a prostitute and her pimp and then he had thought he was being mugged. But muggers don't tend to kidnap their victims. Knife them, maybe, but not kidnap them.

It had to have been a set up, he thought. They had known who he was; in fact, they must have been waiting for him. And in order for them to have been waiting for him, they must have blocked the signal to his mobile. That was the only way they could be sure he'd come out of the Pub. And then when they had grabbed him, he had fought back, and that's when they had given him the very thorough working over he had received.

He winced and fought off a wave of nausea. _They must have hacked my computer,_ he thought. _Why else would they have picked me up? And they must have known, or at least have guessed, that they'd be caught on Torchwood's CCTV if they had entered the building._

He remembered being hauled into a cheap motel near the Pub, the kind where no one asks any questions no matter what they hear, and he had been interrogated about what he knew about the Doctor, Rose, Pete and the break-in at the mansion. At some point they had shot him up with something, and then everything got really hazy after that. And then somehow he had ended up here.

Wherever here was.

Jake heard the door open. At the same time the overhead lights flicked on. He immediately closed his eyes against the glare, and he heard the door closed.

"Hello, Jake," a familiar voice said.

He opened his eyes. He wasn't surprised at who stood in the doorway.

"You look like shite, Jake. They weren't supposed to be so rough while questioning you. On the other hand, you did try to escape."

"Did you really think I wouldn't?"

"I guess not. Tell me, when did you realize it was me?"

"About fifteen seconds ago," Jake answered. "Although I figured it might be you right before your friends picked me up. Whenever that was. So what's next? You kill me?"

"Actually not. I need to find out what else you know. And who you may have told."

Jake raised one eyebrow. It hurt like hell, but he tried not to show it. "Then you kill me?"

The other man didn't answer. Instead, he opened the door and a guard Jake recognized from the archives walked in.

"Hold him down."

The guard approached him. Jake struggled as he was forced backwards onto the bed. And then the guard held him as he was injected with something. In the back of his mind he vaguely wondered what he had been given before he blacked out.

~oOo~

Ianto's sister's minivan slowly pulled up to the Severn Bridge. Toshiko had analyzed all the possible routes out of Wales and had discovered that all the routes out were either hours out of their way or blocked. The Doctor, who was driving, had decided to take the direct route, reasoning he could talk, Rose said bluff, his way through the checkpoint.

It had just begun drizzling as they had left Cardiff, but within minutes the skies had opened up and they had been deluged. This wasn't all bad; they all knew that the rain would more than likely help them get to London without being spotted.

As they had moved to the head of the queue, the heavily armed border guards approached the van.

"Now we're gonna see if these passports actually work," the Doctor said.

"Don't worry, they will," Toshiko assured him, snapping her laptop closed. He glanced in the rear view mirror. Owen and Toshiko were seated in the center row, while Ianto had the back bench seat to himself. The Doctor had sonicked Tosh's laptop before they had left, and she had been using it to continue to monitor the situation in London. So far, she still hadn't been able to discover where Pete, Martha and the rest of the staff were being held, and she had found out her friend in IT at Torchwood Four had been among those that had been fired, drying up that source of information.

"You need to put on the perception filters and be completely silent and completely still in order for this to work," the Doctor told them. Rose moved to pull on hers, and he stopped her. "It'll look less suspicious if I'm traveling with someone."

"Now why are we using the passports instead of the psychic paper?" Rose asked as the others put on their perception filters.

"Because it's more fun this way," he replied. He waggled his eyebrows and gave her a wide grin as he pulled the van forward.

After he stopped at the makeshift gate, a soldier in bright yellow rain gear walked up to the minivan as two others who were similarly dressed stood by, holding rifles in their arms. The Doctor lowered his window.

"Hi," he said in a broad American accent. "What's up?"

The man's eyes narrowed. "Names, please?"

"I'm Jack Harkness and this here's my wife, Sarah Jane," the Doctor answered, gesturing at Rose. She smiled flirtatiously at the guard.

"Hi, y'all," Rose said, trying for a deep Southern American drawl.

The Doctor winced almost imperceptibly. "Don't," he whispered to her without moving his lips. "Please, just don't."

"Yeah, like your accent is any better," she muttered under her breath.

"Papers, please?" the soldier said coldly.

"Sure, no problemo, let me just get them out." As the Doctor reached inside his leather jacket, the other man pulled out his gun while the other guards quickly pointed their rifles at him. The Doctor and Rose hurriedly put up their hands. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said. "Just gettin' them out of my pocket." He slowly lifted open his jacket with two fingers of one hand and carefully withdrew both of their passports from an inside pocket with the other. "See? Just gettin' our papers."

After putting away his weapon, the soldier took them out of his hand and examined them. The Doctor and Rose slowly put down their hands.

"Where did you get the minivan, sir?"

"Oh, we rented it. Nice young woman, wasn't she, Sarah Jane?"

Rose just nodded.

"Paperwork on that?"

The Doctor reached into his pocket again, this time pulling out the psychic paper and handing it over. The other man examined it for several long moments before he handed it back, obviously satisfied with what he had seen.

"Purpose of your visit?" he asked.

"Honeymoon." The Doctor beamed at the other man. "Me and the wife, we've traveled all over but we've never been here before so we thought, what the hell, let's take a road trip all over England."

"But you were in Wales."

"Yeah?" he responded with a _so what's your point_ tone to his voice.

"Wales isn't a part of England."

"It's not?" he asked, sounding bewildered. "Then what is it?"

"It's a separate country."

"Really? No kiddin'." The Doctor looked over at Rose. "Ya hear that, Sarah Jane? All this time we thought we were in England and we weren't. Well, I guess we'll be in England now, huh?"

"You are entering England now," the guard confirmed. "What is your destination, sir?"

"Scotland," the Doctor replied. "Now that's in England, isn't it?"

Irritation crept into the soldier's voice. "No, sir. Scotland is also a separate country."

"Wow. Who knew?" The Doctor tried to look puzzled. "What about London? That's in England, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Thank goodness. Here I was beginning to think that that zeppelin dropped us off in the wrong place."

As he spoke, the guard gestured to the other two. One approached the front of the minivan, his rifle trained on the Doctor, while the other circled towards the back of the vehicle.

"Open the back and the side door of your vehicle, sir," the soldier said.

There was a sharp intake of breath from the back, which Rose assumed to be Tosh.

"Sure," the Doctor said. He pressed several buttons on the control panel, the side door slid open and the back door rose of its own accord.

While the soldier in front kept his weapon trained on the Doctor, the other pulled a heavy torch off the utility belt he wore and pointed it into the side door; Toshiko and Owen froze as its light illuminated their faces. Then he walked around and examined the small area in back. Again he lifted his torch to shine into the main part of the vehicle. This time the light shone directly on Ianto. The guard's eyes narrowed as he stared into the vehicle. After several long moments in which they all stopped breathing, he then walked back to the side, where he stared again into the vehicle's interior.

After a moment, he slammed both doors shut.

"Nothing there," he said.

The first guard handed their passports back to the Doctor. "Here you are, sir. Your paperwork seems to be in order. Now don't forget, you need to get to your destination quickly, or stop on the way. Curfew is at 10:00 pm, and you won't be allowed on the road after that."

"Yes, sir," the Doctor answered. "We'll keep that in mind, won't we, honey? We'll find a place to stay right quick. Well, I thank you for all your help, I really do."

The soldier waved him on while one of the other guards raised the makeshift barrier that stretched across one lane of the road. As the Doctor drove away from the checkpoint, Toshiko let out a sigh of relief.

"I thought we were done for," she said.

"Nope," the Doctor said, popping the 'p'.

"And what was all that business about Wales and England?" Rose asked

"I thought it lent an air of authenticity to the role. We were supposed to be Americans, you know." He could barely contain a smirk. Rose rolled her eyes.

"One of these days you're going to get us killed, _Jack_ ," she said, slapping the Doctor's arm.

"Not today." He grinned cockily and winked at her.

"And _Sarah Jane_?" She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Who is that, an ex-girlfriend?" Owen asked.

"Yes," Rose answered.

"No," the Doctor said at the same time.

"Yes, she was," she said teasingly to him, and he shot her a look.

"No, she wasn't," he told her.

Rose turned around and looked at Owen. "Don't listen to him," she said, suppressing a laugh. "He can deny it all he wants, but she's his ex."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, which she ignored. "We were just friends," he said. "Best friends, but just friends."

"I know what that means," Owen responded with a smirk, and the others made noises of agreement.

"No, it doesn't," the Doctor disagreed. "We were just friends."

Now it was Rose's turn to roll her eyes. "Did you or did you not travel with her?"

"Yeah," he responded slowly.

"How long?"

He paused thoughtfully, considering it. "Several years."

"Ever hug her?"

"On occasion."

"Hold hands?"

"Sometimes. But that was it," he insisted.

"A girlfriend," the three in the back of the van agreed and Rose laughed.

"A pretty useless one if you ask me," Owen added. "But definitely a girlfriend."

"I actually met Sarah Jane. She was nice," she continued and then turned back to the Doctor. "But I still don't want you to call me by her name."

"You'd better be careful of that," Owen warned. "Did that once, called someone the wrong name at the wrong time and ended up not being able to walk for a week."

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" Tosh rolled her eyes. "It was probably in bed."

From his position in the back, Ianto snorted.

"Well, at least I had someone to call the wrong name," Owen said nastily.

"Owen, shut up," everyone else said in unison.

~oOo~

"Okay. Well then, get here when you can," Gwen said into her mobile. "I'll see you later. Love you."

She rang off and turned to Jackie. "That was Rhys. He's hung up at one of the checkpoints. There's some problem with his paperwork, and he doesn't know when he'll be here."

They were sitting at the kitchen table, both nursing mugs of tea from Jackie's latest pot.

"I hope everything's alright," Jackie said.

"Oh, I'm sure everything's fine," Gwen said lightly, trying to hide her concern from Rose's mum.

"Yeah, you're probably right," she responded. She sounded more confident than she felt.

Tony raced into the kitchen. "Mummy, Mummy, someone's coming up the road!"

Gwen immediately switched from concerned wife to Torchwood agent.

"What does the car look like, sweetie?" she asked gently.

"There's a big, black car like Daddy's," he answered excitedly. "And a big truck, too!"

Gwen and Jackie exchanged worried glances.

"It's probably UNIT," Gwen told her. "I need you and Tony to put on your perception filters and quietly head towards the Doctor's hiding spot. I'll meet you there. It's just up the path, yeah?"

"Yeah, but shouldn't we wait for you?"

Gwen shook her head as she pushed herself out of her chair. "No. I need to get something first. I'll be right behind you. But Jackie, if I'm more than a minute, go in without me."

Jackie stared at her for a moment before nodding sharply. She grabbed a couple of perception filters from the table before turning towards her son.

"Tony, remember when we were playin' Torchwood agents with Rose?" she asked as she led him out the back door. "Well, we're gonna play it again, and this time you're gonna wear this special spy necklace. It's gonna make you invisible, just like in Harry Potter, but you have to be really, really quiet…"

After they had walked out the door, Gwen crossed the room, rummaged through her knapsack and removed a sonic blaster from the Hub's armory. She pulled on her own perception filter before slipping out the door.

Thankfully the rain had stopped, but everything was still wet. Puddles had filled the low spaces in the path and the lawn. The roof and the trees were still dripping. And the heavy mist that filled the air was quickly soaking her to the skin as thoroughly as if it still had been raining.

As Gwen carefully made her way through the garden towards the trees, her heart began to race. She could hear the UNIT soldiers begin to surround the house. Normally she lived for this, the adrenalin rush of stalking a criminal or being stalked by one. But she had to think about the baby now.

Holding the blaster in front of her, she flipped the switch to turn it on, and winced as the hum it made broke the silence. As she continued to move across the garden, two soldiers, both young men, rounded the corner of the building. She froze.

Gwen held her breath as they moved stealthily past her. She realized that, despite seeing the Doctor's demonstration and despite all the incredible things she had seen working for Torchwood, she hadn't truly believed that the perception filter would actually work, would make her virtually invisible. Yet here she stood, out in the open, only inches away from them and they didn't notice her.

At a signal she couldn't see, they burst through the kitchen door into the house. After a moment, she could hear voices in the house, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. She bit her lip and glanced towards the path. It was only about fifty feet from her. She should really go and find Jackie and Tony, she thought. But the temptation to hear what they were saying was too great. Reasoning to herself that she needed to know what their plans were, she cautiously walked back to the house and stood under the open window.

"They weren't upstairs either, ma'am." A young man's voice filtered through the window.

"What about the outbuilding?" a woman asked.

"Randall and Dibley are checking it out now."

Gwen heard the sound of a door opening and closing, and footsteps cross the floor. So that meant there were at least six of them, she reasoned. Randall, Dibley, the two kids who had entered from the back, the woman in charge and whoever had just entered the room. Six. Or more. Assume more.

"Captain, the television was on when they came in." This time, the voice sounded like a young woman.

"And their tea is still warm," the Captain said.

"There is a path out to the woods, sir," the young man interjected. "They may have escaped out the back as we pulled up."

"Check it out."

At that, Gwen turned and ran across the garden trying not to slip on the wet grass. Surprising herself at how quickly she could still move, she had her blaster in one hand with the other supporting her belly. Behind her, the back door opened and several soldiers exited the house. She heard someone yell an order to fan out.

"Shit, shit, shit," she muttered under her breath. She might have been running, but they weren't almost nine months pregnant so they were gaining on her. And she only had a vague idea of where she was going. According to Rose, there was a hiding place in a large tree in the center of a small clearing at the end of the path. But how a tree could hide them? It didn't make any sense.

At the end of the path she stopped, unable to breathe. Her belly was pressing on her diaphragm, not allowing her lungs to fully expand. Gasping, she arched her back to allow her lungs more room to fill with air. Inside her, the baby was doing something that felt a lot like kickboxing. Gritting her teeth at the pain, she rubbed a sore spot on her belly and looked around. She couldn't see Jackie or Tony, but that wasn't a bad thing. If she couldn't see them, the soldiers wouldn't be able to see them, either.

There was one tree in the clearing that towered over the rest. She stepped up to it and walked around the trunk. There was a large heart carved into it, just below eye level, and despite the urgency of the situation she smiled as she read the words carved inside. This was definitely the tree Rose had described, but she couldn't see any place where you could go inside it. And it was too small to hide the three of them, anyway. She wasn't even certain it was big enough to hide her.

As she heard the soldiers near the clearing, she glanced back the way she came. Amazingly, they still weren't here, but she knew they would be any second. Remembering what else Rose had told her, she turned back towards the tree and placed her hand in the center of the heart. Her eyes widened. There was something there. It felt like a large button.

Before she even had a chance to press it, a door in the trunk swung open.

A door. In the trunk.

A hand grabbed her and pulled her through the doorway.

A _doorway_. In a _tree_.

"Oh, thank heaven," Jackie said. She shut the door behind Gwen and locked it. "I was getting so worried about you."

Gwen gaped at the impossible room in front of her. It was larger than her entire flat. The walls, which appeared to be made of some sort of alien material, were covered with round indentations and glowed with an inner light. Pillars that appeared more grown than built stretched up to an arched ceiling high overhead. In the center of the room, it looked like someone was building something but hadn't finished yet.

"Bloody hell," she said softly. "It's bigger on the inside."


	33. Chapter Thirty-Two

"It's the Doctor's spaceship," Jackie told Gwen.

As she stared open-mouthed around her, Gwen took a few tentative steps into the incredible… room? The word didn't seem to fit. It was so much more than that; it almost looked like a cavern—an enormous, spooky, alien cavern—hidden in the trunk of a tree.

"It's his new TARDIS," Tony said from the other side of the room. He was sitting on the floor, surrounded by small toy cars. He seemed completely unfazed by his surroundings. "It used to be a blue box but now it's a tree."

"I don't believe it," Gwen said again. "Rose told me about this, but I thought I misunderstood her or she was kidding me or something. I mean, how could something be bigger on the inside?" She gritted her teeth and rubbed her belly again.

"Are you alright?" Jackie asked, a concerned tone to her voice.

"Yeah." She nodded and then winced again. "I ran part of the way up here, and now the baby's trying to do Tae Kwan Do in protest. Is there anywhere I can sit down?"

Jackie looked around. "I didn't see anything… Oh!"

"What…" Gwen turned to look where Jackie was looking. In the corner of the room were two large overstuffed chairs and ottomans. Brow furrowed, she turned back to Jackie. "I don't remember seeing them when I came in."

Jackie shook her head. "They weren't there before."

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Gwen sank into one of the chairs and put her feet up and Jackie sat in the chair next to her.

"How…" Gwen began.

"The Doctor is magic," Tony piped up from where he was playing. "Just like Harry Potter."

"Oh, I see," Gwen answered, not entirely sure she disbelieved him. She certainly had no explanation for her surroundings, or for the chairs that had suddenly seemed to appear out of thin air. Magic was as good an explanation as any. But one other thing puzzled her. She turned back to Jackie and said in a low voice, "Who's Harry Potter?"

~oOo~

"What do you mean, there's no Harry Potter in this universe?" the Doctor said incredulously.

While he spoke, the Doctor was staring at the entrance to Torchwood Four through a pair of opera glasses he had pulled from one of the pockets of his leather jacket. It was one of the many things he had brought with him from the original TARDIS in the pockets of his blue suit. When he had changed into his current outfit, he had shoved as many things as possible in the not-bigger-on-the-inside pockets of the jacket, certain he might need them.

While he was watching the entrance, they had been discussing the perception filters in preparation to trying to enter Torchwood Four, and Ianto had asked about Jackie's description of invisibility cloaks.

"There's no Harry Potter," Rose confirmed. "I wanted to read the first story to Tony, and I couldn't find it so I ended up trying to tell him the story from memory. Plus I wanted to finish reading the series myself cos _somebody_ who had read the whole set wanted _me_ to wait until they were all out in my time for some _unknown_ reason, even though _he_ had a _time machine_." She glared at him, and he looked sheepish.

"I thought it would add more excitement to your reading of the books if you had to wait," he explained, sounding apologetic. "Anticipation is half the pleasure of something."

She shook her head. "Sad. This is coming from the man who can't even wait to get out of the store before he opens a package of Jaffa Cakes. Anyway, I looked all over. After spending a solid week looking for JK Rowling in this universe, I eventually found her. She was working as an accountant for Tesco's."

The Doctor shuddered. "What a waste. Not that we don't need accountants for… something or other, but she is a literary genius. Absolutely brilliant. Her Harry Potter books are considered classics well into the 58th century, and her next series was even better. In fact when I met her, it was just before… Oh." He grimaced.

"Oh?" Rose asked, eyebrows raised.

"Weell," he said, drawing out the word so long that it could have been its own sentence, "I _may_ have encouraged her a bit in her writing when I met her. And now that I think about it, my companions and I _may_ have given her some ideas for some of the characters."

"Really," Rose said, turning to stare at him. "And what characters would those have been?"

"Well, Hermione seems almost like an amalgam of two of my friends, Tegan and Nyssa. Nyssa was incredibly brilliant, and Tegan… She was an absolute force of nature: brave, opinionated, but with a good heart. And the description of Ron, in looks rather than personality, fits Turlough to a T." He paused thoughtfully. "When we're done sorting this, we'll definitely have to go look up ol' JK, give her a bit of inspiration. A universe without Harry Potter scarcely bears thinking about."

Rose's mouth twitched. "So if you and your companions inspired some of the characters, who were you? Let me guess. Wild brown hair, glasses, an inability to follow the rules…"

"Harry? Don't I wish. Actually, I think I may have inspired Dumbledore."

Rose snorted. "Not a chance."

The Doctor shot her a look. "What, you don't think I could be wise and enigmatic?"

"Wise? Maybe occasionally." She sounded doubtful. "But enigmatic? You can't keep your mouth shut more than two minutes at a time, and that's only because you're asleep or something."

"I do have a bit of a gob this time 'round," he agreed. He sounded proud of it. "But you didn't know me back then. Definitely enigmatic. Bit of a stick-in-the-mud, though. But you would have liked him. Bit of a pretty boy: blond, blue-eyed, not as handsome as I am now of course…"

The minivan was parked in the car park of a restaurant across from Torchwood's main gate, close enough to see the small building that held the guards but not close enough to have the car get caught on Torchwood's CCTV.

"This would have been so much easier if we had the TARDIS," the Doctor said, still watching the entrance with the opera glasses. "If we had the TARDIS up and running, we could have materialized right in the building and wouldn't have to go through all of this."

"Yeah," Rose agreed. "That's assuming, of course, that we arrived in the right century." He shot her a look, and she grinned cheekily at him. He gave her a small, crooked grin before turning back.

"Can you see who has guard duty tonight?" Rose asked.

"Whoever it is is facing the wrong way," he told her. "Come on, come on, turn just a tiny bit more, just a little more… Damn."

"What is it?"

"The guard at the entrance is Filbin."

"What? George?" Rose grabbed the glasses out of his hands and peered through them at the gate. She exhaled loudly in frustration. "Yeah, it's him."

"What's the problem, Rose?" Toshiko asked from the backseat.

"The guard at the gate, it's someone we know," she told her. "Can't use fake IDs or psychic paper with someone we know. And we can't walk in wearing the perception filters; he has to open the gate so he actually has to see one of us. And he knows the Doctor and me, and Ianto and Owen were just here a few weeks ago."

"What if I drive in?" Toshiko suggested. "He won't recognize me; I've only been here once, and it was years ago."

The Doctor and Rose glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Sounds good to me," Rose said.

After a brief instruction to Toshiko on how to use the psychic paper, and an uncomfortable shift in the seating arrangement of the van without getting out, Tosh drove up to the gate.

George Filbin, a tall, thin man with curly, blond hair and light blue eyes, stepped up to the car. He wore khaki trousers and a white shirt with the logo of the Burpee's baby formula company embroidered on it. A radio mike was attached to his collar and the corresponding earpiece was in his left ear.

Toshiko lowered her window to speak to him.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, this is private property," he told her. Toshiko raised one eyebrow.

"I have an appointment with the Director," she stated in a supercilious tone.

He spoke into his mike and paused as he listened to the voice in his earpiece.

"We have no records of an appointment, and the Director isn't here," he said.

"Perhaps this will clarify things," Tosh replied and handed over the wallet holding the psychic paper.

His eyes widened as he looked at it. He snapped to attention.

"Ma'am," he said nervously. "I'm sorry. We weren't notified you were coming." He again spoke into his mike, and the gate opened.

As Toshiko pulled through the opening, she handed the psychic paper back to the Doctor. He glanced at it and his mouth twisted into a small grin before handing it back to her.

"What's it say?" she asked curiously.

"Evidently you're the new Secretary of Defense, and you are on a top-secret inspection tour to determine how well Torchwood is being integrated into UNIT."

Toshiko chuckled. "Works for me."

~oOo~

After a long discussion on the way to London, it had been decided that the Doctor, with Ianto's help, would try to restore Lisa Hallett's memories, while Rose, Toshiko and Owen would search Pete's office in the hopes of finding a clue about what Keeling's ultimate plans were as well as where Pete and Martha were being held.

But first they had to get into the building.

Presumably the security at the gate would notify the guard at the entrance to expect Toshiko, and they had all decided that it would look suspicious if she didn't have an assistant with her. Owen had been chosen, over his vehement objections, because after Toshiko, he had spent the least amount of time in Torchwood Four, and also because he had nothing better to do.

The minivan was parked close to the building, in that part of the car park reserved for dignitaries and high-level government officials. As Torchwood was now a semi-secret branch of government, this area of the car park was rarely, if ever, used and there were no other cars near them. What was even better was that there were very few security cameras in the area and that they had been able to park in one of the few spots in the car park which was a dead zone for CCTV.

The Doctor had his opera glasses out again. From their location, he had a clear view into the lobby.

"Only one guard at the entrance," he said. "But the way is blocked by metal detectors that look like they were designed to detect more than just metal." He paused as he stared at them. "Maybe some sort of bio-scanning technology. I could take that out with the sonic screwdriver." He handed the glasses to Rose.

"The psychic paper will get us through most of the interior security doors," Rose said, now peering through them herself. "But what about the CCTV? Torchwood is loaded with it. Will the perception filters get us past that?"

"Yes," he said firmly, and then immediately corrected himself with a slight grimace. "Well, the CCTV _will_ pick us up. The perception filters can't fool cameras into thinking we aren't there. However, they _should_ trick anyone monitoring the CCTV into not noticing us."

"Should, or will?"

"Should," he admitted. "Since the TARDIS is so new and since I didn't have the typical materials I usually use for making perception filters, their effectiveness is a bit… unpredictable, let's say."

"So to be safe, we have to assume that they won't work with CCTV. So our first priority will be to knock that out, then get the two of you," and by that she meant the Doctor and Ianto, "to the Infirmary lock-up, and then the three of us over to Dad's office. Agreed?"

Owen opened his mouth to protest, and Rose ignored him.

"Good. Let's go."

The first part went without incident. After exiting the van, the Doctor immediately pointed his sonic at one of the CCTV pointed at the approach to the door. The light indicating it was on went out.

"You know on second thought," he whispered in Rose's ear, "we probably shouldn't take them all out. Might make them suspicious."

"What do you suggest?" she whispered back.

Instead of answering, he demonstrated. He pointed his sonic at the other camera and it slowly changed direction, turning to point down the pavement along the front of the building rather than directly at the door as it had been.

"That works," she said with a grin for him.

With his sonic, he turned the other camera back on and moved it to point in the opposite direction.

"Easy peasy, lemon squeezy," he said and then wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Remind me not to say that again."

Rose unsuccessfully tried to stifle a snort.

With the CCTV turned the other direction, the Doctor, Rose and Ianto, all still wearing perception filters, followed Toshiko and Owen into the building.

The room was empty save for the guard manning the entrance. He looked barely out of his teens, and he nervously jumped to his feet when he saw Toshiko and Owen enter. As they crossed over to him, the others remained at the door, hoping they would go unnoticed by people monitoring the CCTV in the building.

The Doctor tapped Rose on the shoulder and then pointed to the CCTV in the room. There were six cameras. Three pointed to areas where they didn't need to go, but one was pointed at the metal detectors, one at the security guard's desk, and the last was pointed at the door and therefore directly at them. Those three, as well as the metal detectors themselves, would need to be taken out.

"Identification please," the guard asked nervously, and Tosh handed him the psychic paper. While he scanned the contents of the Doctor's wallet into an E-Reader, the Doctor himself pointed his screwdriver at the CCTV pointed at the door. The whirring of the sonic seemed overly loud in the silent room, and the Doctor winced.

"Did you hear that?" the guard asked, looking around the room wide-eyed for the source of the unfamiliar sound.

Toshiko and Owen glanced at each other and then over at the door. They knew the Doctor was there, but they couldn't quite make him out.

"Hear what?" Tosh asked.

"That whirring sound," he said.

"Oh, that. That's just my mobile," Owen told him. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. "It's a piece of crap. That's supposed to be my silent mode."

He stared at the tiny screen for a moment, pretending to read a text, then shoved it back into his pocket.

Relieved that Owen had been so quick-thinking, the Doctor pointed the sonic over at one of the other cameras, and Owen pulled his mobile out of his pocket again. They repeated the performance two more times before the Doctor had managed to either misdirect or turn off the cameras and the metal detector.

"You really need a new phone," the guard said to Owen as they finished the screening process.

"Yeah, I know," he replied. "I'll have to ask my boss for a new one. An upgrade, considering all the crap I have to deal with in this job." Toshiko, his supposed boss, glared at him, but he was looking in the general direction of Rose.

After leaving the lobby, with the help of the psychic paper and the sonic screwdriver, they made their way to the Infirmary without incident. Once the CCTV in the hall outside the Medical Department was turned off, they removed their perception filters and Toshiko sighed in relief.

"It's so nice to actually see you clearly," she said softly. "It was giving me a headache to try and concentrate enough to see you while you had those on."

"Now, have we figured out how to get past the guard in the Infirmary yet?" Rose whispered. "We could walk past him, but there's no way around the fact we need to open and close doors."

As she spoke, the Doctor began to stare at the ceiling and CCTV speculatively.

"I have an idea," he replied quietly, "but it all depends on where the junction box is for the CCTV and these lights and how they're wired. Are they in the same location, or are they separate?"

"If I remember right, there's a utility cupboard two corridors over from here."

"There's probably a junction box in there, if not a set of circuit breakers." He thought for a moment. "Rose, I need you to get over there and knock out both the power and the CCTV to this entire wing for a few minutes."

Rose nodded. "Ianto, text me when it's time to turn them back on."

The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out of the inside pocket of his jacket and handed it to her. "Now once you've turned the power back on—just the power, not the CCTV—get straight back here. You shouldn't have any problem if it's circuit breakers, but you'll need the sonic if it's just a junction box, and you'll need the sonic to get into the cupboard anyway. Setting 57-A for the lock, setting 246-B on the junction box for two seconds. Any more than that and you'll melt the circuits. If you do that, not only will they be onto us when they find it, but you won't be able to get the power back on. And we'll all need to put on our perception filters, just in case," he added, speaking to them all.

They all pulled on their perception filters, and Rose headed down the hall. A minute later the overhead lights went out, plunging them into darkness. The Doctor waited for one and a half minutes and then kicked the wall, hard, sounding like he had accidentally run into it. He swore loudly.

"Who's there?" yelled a young woman from inside the Infirmary.

"George," the Doctor yelled in a perfect mimicry of the guard's voice. "George Filbin. Who's that?"

"Sue Meyer," she answered.

"Good," he said. "Was lookin' for you. They want you back at the main office."

"But I'm guarding the prisoner."

" 'M supposed to take over for you."

They heard a loud crash, and then she let off a string of expletives.

"What was that?" the Doctor asked, still using George Filbin's voice.

"Knocked over a piece of equipment," she answered, her voice getting nearer. They heard her open the door. "Glass all over. I'd say watch your step, but it's pitch black in there. Not any better out here, is it?"

"Nope," he replied.

"You sure they want me back at the office?" she asked.

"That's what they said."

"Do you know why?"

"I think they want you to help with getting the CCTV back up and runnin'."

"I don't know anything about that," she protested. She paused for a moment. "I suppose with all the firings we're so short staffed there's no one else."

"You'd better take the stairs," he said, "just in case the lifts go out as well."

"That'll take forever," she complained. "The office is three floors down, as well as on the other side of the building." She groaned loudly. "Well, I guess there's no putting it off."

They all heard her move off. After a moment they heard her bang into the wall and curse.

"Bloody idiot doesn't know what he's doing," they heard her mutter. "Keeling couldn't find his arse with both hands and a map."

A door to the stairwell opened and closed. Once in the Infirmary, they all let out a sigh of relief and removed their perception filters. Ianto texted Rose and the lights came back on.

"Now let me get this straight," Owen was saying to the Doctor when Rose joined them. "You can do a near perfect imitation of the guard at the gate, but you can't manage to do a halfway decent American accent?"

"Oi, watch it, autopsy boy," the Doctor said sharply. "I'd like to see you do better."

Owen blinked, Ianto snickered, Toshiko raised her eyebrows, and Rose tried not to laugh.

"Y'know, I've been called a lot of things in my time," Owen said, "but that's a new one."

"C'mon, Owen," Rose said. "Let's leave them to do what they need to do."


	34. Chapter Thirty-Three

After Rose had returned the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver to him, she, Toshiko and Owen left the infirmary, and the Doctor and Ianto looked at the door of the makeshift cell that held Lisa Hallett. They exchanged glances.

“Well, we might as well get to it, then,” the Doctor said. He unlocked the door with his sonic, and Ianto slipped inside. After a moment he stuck his head out again and motioned for the Doctor to join him.

Lisa Hallett’s prison cell had been built by partitioning off a portion of the Infirmary ward. Since she was as much a medical patient as a prisoner, her room contained not only a narrow bed against one wall, but a small table and two chairs near the other end of the room. The bathroom that had serviced the Infirmary had been incorporated into her cell as well, now acting as an en suite for her. In fact, if it weren’t for the fine, unbreakable mesh that covered the window, preventing her escape, the room could have been mistaken as a patient’s room in a private hospital.

The Doctor took all of this in as he entered, as well as the colorful duvet and throw pillows on the bed and the matted, but not framed, prints on the walls. Martha’s touches, he assumed, probably with the idea that cheerful surroundings would help her patient improve. Or perhaps just because Martha was thoughtful and kindhearted, even to someone who had endangered the planet with her actions.

Lisa was standing by the window, dressed in a short sleeved top and elastic waist trousers, trainers with Velcro fasteners on her feet. No belts, no shoe strings. Nothing she could use to harm herself and nothing in the room, save the pillows possibly, that she could use to harm anyone else. 

“Lisa, this is the man I told you about,” Ianto said by way of introduction.

“Hello, I’m the Doctor.” He crossed the room, hand outstretched, and she cautiously shook it.

“Hello,” she said. To the Doctor, she looked like a completely different person than she had only weeks before, her face open and curious rather than the cold, calculating expression she had worn then.

“Lisa, do you remember me?” he asked.

She furrowed her brow and looked at him intently. “No. Have we met?”

“Yes, we did. Not very long ago, in fact,” he told her.

She continued to stare at him for a moment longer and then slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember.”

“That’s all right,” he said gently. “Do you know what happened to you?”

“No.” Her voice held more than a hint of frustration. “No one will tell me anything. Not how I lost my memory, and not why I’m locked up.” This last part was directed at Ianto, who looked at her impassively.

“Lisa, what’s the last thing you remember?” the Doctor asked.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “It’s all a bit of a jumble. Maybe Christmas at Ianto’s sister’s house. She had just had a baby. I don’t think there’s anything after that.”

“That was five and a half years ago,” Ianto confirmed.

The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, and her eyes widened in apprehension.

“What is that?” she asked nervously.

“A piece of medical equipment,” he answered. And it was. It just wasn’t all it was. “I just want to scan you to see what we’re dealing with here.” After scanning her and analyzing the readings, he glanced over at Ianto. “It was definitely Ret-Con.”

“Someone did this to me?” Lisa was horrified.

“Yes,” Ianto said. “And we think it was someone from the GBF.”

She shook her head. “That’s… not possible,” she protested. “They are good people. They are just working for the good of the planet. And they are my friends. They couldn’t have done this.”

“But they did, Lisa,” the Doctor told her. “You told me that while you were working in the archives, you found a piece of an alien communication device that had a bit of energy in it. That bit of energy was actually a life form.”

“It possessed you,” Ianto interjected, downplaying Lisa’s own role in the events.

“While you were… _possessed_ …” the Doctor said, using Ianto’s simplification of her telepathic joining, “you stole weapons from Torchwood, kidnapped Rose Tyler, and you, along with some others, built a beacon so you could bring more of the aliens here and take over the planet. When you were caught, whomever was involved with you here at Torchwood gave you a heavy dose of Ret-Con, more than enough to wipe your memories. Maybe even enough to kill you. Then they dumped you over by the London Eye.”

She sank down on the bed, shaking her head. “No, no, I don’t believe it.” 

“Lisa, it’s true,” Ianto said as he sat down next to her. He took her hand. “You know me. You know I’ve never lied to you.”

She nodded absently as she tried to take it all in. “I know you haven’t, Yan,” she said. “It just all seems so… incredible.” After a few moments of silence, she looked at her former fiancé. “So you’re hoping that if I get my memory back, I can tell you who I was working with, right?”

“Pretty much,” he said.

She looked up at the Doctor. “Ianto told me that you could help me.”

“Actually, I’m not certain I can.” He pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat down on it, facing her. “I can try to restore the pathways that will connect your lost memories to your conscious mind, but I don’t know if it’ll work.”

She nodded. “I want to do whatever it takes.”

“It would mean entering your mind telepathically,” he warned. “And it might be unpleasant. If you remember everything you’ve done, everything you’ve had happen to you, good and bad, you could find it overwhelming. It will be as if all of it has happened to you at one time.” He paused as he allowed the implications of that to sink in. He knew that in her missing years she had experienced a broken engagement and the deaths of family and friends. And those were only the things he knew about. “Do you still want me to try?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I want to remember.”

“Lisa, I need to make sure you understand exactly what you are agreeing to,” the Doctor said. “I won’t do this unless I’m sure you understand.”

She looked at him evenly, and when she spoke, the cold, bitter edge to her voice reminded him of the Lisa he had first met. “You are going to try to telepathically restore my memories, and in exchange I’m going to tell you who the bastard was who double-crossed me and tried to kill me.”

The Doctor blinked. 

“Yes. Right,” he said. “That about covers it. Well, okay then. Let’s get started, shall we?”

Ianto got up and stood leaning against the door while the Doctor took his position on the bed.

“Lisa,” the Doctor said quietly. “I want you to close your eyes and try to relax. Imagine you’re in a long hallway, and there are doors on either side. Now some of those doors are locked, and what we’re going to try to do is unlock them. If there’s anything behind any of the doors you don’t want me to see, just shut the door and we’ll move on.” While he was speaking, he closed his eyes and gently placed his fingertips on her temples.

~oOo~

At the door to Pete Tyler’s office, Rose was inputting the code to unlock the door.

“Hopefully they haven’t changed the code yet,” she said under her breath. 

“And if they have?” Owen asked.

“If it doesn’t work, we can always go back and get the Doctor’s sonic,” she told him. There was a quiet click, and the door swung open. She turned and grinned at the others before entering.

The outer office was small, only really large enough for a desk and a filing cabinet that were used by the Director’s assistant. On the other side of the room was another door that led to Pete’s private office.

“Tosh,” Rose said, “I’ll get you onto Dad’s computer using my codes. They should give you access to almost everything in Torchwood’s computer banks. If they haven’t wiped them yet, it’ll be safer to do it that way than to have you try and hack your way in. Then while you’re doing that, I’ll search the office.” She turned to work on the door leading to the inner office.

“While you two are doing that, what am I supposed to do?” Owen asked.

“Sit around and look pretty, like every good assistant is supposed to do,” Toshiko said sarcastically.

“Owen, you can start on the files in here,” Rose said as she sat down at the desk. “I doubt Keeling will have had time to move much in here, but we’re still gonna have to check everything. I’ll start with Todd’s stuff and when I’m done with that, I’ll join you.” 

She turned on the computer and quickly typed in her password. The screen flooded with information. 

“Good,” she said. “We’re in.”

~oOo~

As he and the guard left Jake Simmond’s cell, an unconscious Jake spread out on his bunk, his mobile started ringing. He gestured to the guard to continue without him.

“Yes?” he answered.

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded very young to his ears. “Sir, the director told me to inform you if there were any problems tonight. The Secretary of Defense is here with her assistant investigating Torchwood’s integration into UNIT, and we’ve been having rampant power outages and problems with the CCTV. Not only that, someone just entered the director’s office using Director Tyler’s personal ID code. Do you want us to check it out?”

His mind raced. The staffing problems could have led to the electrical problems, and an investigation by the Department of Defense was to be expected, but the probability of an investigation, electrical problems, short staff and a break-in happening all at the same time were so low as to be almost impossible. But other than the guard he had just sent back to the archives, he didn’t know whom within the security staff he could trust.

He walked quickly down the hall and peeked in a small glass window. Pete Tyler was still in his cell, stretched out on his bunk.

“No,” he said. “Stay where you are. I think I know who it is, and I’ll handle it personally.”

~oOo~

After Toshiko traded places with her in front of Pete’s computer, Rose left to work in the outer office and Owen began to go through the filing cabinets.

“What I want to know is why I had to be your assistant. Nobody would believe that you’re my superior.”

She didn’t bother to look up from the computer. “I’m your superior in every way,” she said dryly. “Besides, why shouldn’t people believe you’d be below me?”

Owen jerked his head around to look at her. She was staring intently into the monitor in front of her while her fingers flew across the keyboard. Had she missed the obvious double entendre?

No, she couldn’t have.

He smirked.

“You should be so lucky to be above me.”

Toshiko snorted. “I’d say you’d be the lucky one.”

His eyebrows shot up almost to his hairline. “Oh, really?” he asked with interest. “That good, eh?”

She turned and looked over her glasses at him. “Oh, you have no idea,” she said in a low voice before turning back to the computer.

“Shut it, you two,” Rose called from the other room. “Owen, you are distracting Tosh.”

“Oh, he’s incapable of distracting me,” Toshiko answered. “He could be dancing the Macarena on the desk only wearing feathers and fluorescent orange paint and he wouldn’t distract… Oh, Rose!”

Rose rushed into the room. “What is it?” 

“I think…” Hunched over, Toshiko typed rapidly and stared intently into the computer. Then she sat back in her chair. “Yes! I found them!”

“Who? Dad and Martha?”

Toshiko nodded. “Pete and Martha and all the rest.”

“Where are they?” Owen asked.

“Here.”

“Here?” Rose asked.

Toshiko nodded again. “Here. Downstairs. In the Dungeon!”

Rose ran her fingers through her hair and started laughing. “Fantastic! Now we’re getting somewhere!” She pulled her mobile out of her pocket, started to type and then stopped. “No,” she muttered. She began again, staring at her phone. “The Doctor’s probably still busy with Lisa. I’ve got to text Ianto. Tosh, you and Owen get down there. I need you to take the psychic paper and convince them to release Dad.” She paused to read a reply and then began typing again. “I’m going to have Ianto meet you there just in case. After I finish up here, I’ll go get the Doctor and we’ll figure where to meet up.”

~oOo~

“Okay, a little further down the hall,” the Doctor said.

He and Lisa were still sitting on the bed, eyes closed, the Doctor’s fingertips on her temple.

Ianto looked up from his phone to watch them for a second. Rose had said the Doctor would be able to hear anything he said without breaking their telepathic connection, but he still didn’t want to interrupt them. 

“Doctor,” he said softly. “I have to meet Tosh and Owen. Rose is going to meet you here when she’s done in Pete’s office.”

The Doctor nodded. As he continued to speak softly to Lisa, rebuilding the connections in her mind and coaxing her memories to the surface one by one, he heard Ianto quietly let himself out of the room.

~oOo~

Ianto slipped his perception filter around his neck and headed towards the dedicated lift that led to the Dungeon. His path took him past Director Tyler’s office. Toshiko and Owen had just left the office and were walking down the hall ahead of him. He quietly snuck up behind Owen and tapped him on the shoulder.

Owen jumped, and Ianto snickered.

“Shit, Ianto,” he hissed, swatting at empty air. “Knock it off.”

“Grow up, both of you,” Toshiko snapped. “We’ve got to keep a low profile.”

They walked down the corridors, using the psychic paper to get through the security locks, and made it to the lift without seeing anyone. 

“I spent a lot of time here last time I was in London, and I’ve never seen this place so empty,” Ianto whispered to them.

“Not completely empty,” Toshiko said. “Someone’s coming up in the lift.”

She and Owen glanced at each other nervously as a man exited the lift. He quickly made his way down the hall while they got in.

Ianto stared after him before he followed them in. “I know him,” he said to them as the doors closed. “He shouldn’t be here.” He pulled out his mobile and frowned when he looked at the screen. “I was going to text Rose, but I don’t have any signal.”

“It’s the metal walls of the lift,” Toshiko told him. “You’ll have signal again once we’re in the Dungeon.”

~oOo~

Five minutes after Ianto had left, Lisa still had large gaps in her memories, gaps that the Doctor realized he would never be able to repair no matter how much time he spent with her. But he was certain that the progress they had made would allow many of her other memories to return naturally in their own time.

As they approached her more recent memories, he spotted something she hadn’t noticed. It was just on the edge of the portion lost due to the drugging she had received. Through her eyes he could see her studying his medical records from Cardiff and instantly realizing he was part-alien.

He took a deep breath. What he was about to do went completely against his sense of morality, but he knew it was necessary. If she ever remembered what he was, it would put them all, all the Tylers as well as him, in danger. With a feather-light mental touch, he gently smudged all of her knowledge of him from the time she had met him that first night in the Torchwood storage bay to the dark part permanently damaged by Ret-Con, only allowing her to remember meeting him today.

“Now we need to focus on your most recent memories,” he said aloud. “Try to remember who was helping you here at Torchwood.”

She shook her head. “I can’t,” she told him, and he could feel the anxiety well up inside of her.

“Try to relax,” he urged. “Take a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Don’t strain for the names of the people, just allow their faces to come to the surface.”

She obeyed, inhaling deeply and forcing herself to relax. Faces appeared at random, many of whom he knew, some he did not: Sean Callahan, her assistant; Richard Bradford, her partner at the lab; Harrison Keeling, whom they already knew about; a young man wearing a security uniform from Torchwood he didn’t recognize; a young woman with long brown hair. And then the last face… Almost as if she had burned him, he jerked his fingertips away from her temples and jumped away from her.

Lisa’s eyes flew open. “What is it?” she asked. “Do you know who did this to me?”

“Yes,” he said.

~oOo~

As Rose continued to search her step-father’s office, she heard the doorknob of the door to the hall slowly turn. She almost called out to Toshiko, to ask if everything had gone alright, and then stopped herself. It was far too soon for them to be back.

And none of them—not Tosh, or Owen, or Ianto, and especially not the Doctor—would be sneaking into the office that way.

The door to the inner office was half-shut. Good and bad, she thought. Bad because she couldn’t see who was out there, but good because whoever it was couldn’t see her and that bought her some time. She quickly pulled on her perception filter and glanced at the ceiling. It was too late to turn off the lights, but not too late, she decided, to turn off the computer. She pressed the off switch, just as the door to the inner office swung open.

“I know you’re in here,” Frank Collins said. "I don’t know where, but I know you’re here."

Rose felt her mobile begin to vibrate in her pocket. Her heart pounded, and she quickly reached to turn it off. Thankfully he didn't seem to have heard the tiny noise it had made. 

"I can’t see you," he continued, "but I can sense you. I can feel your apprehension. But where are you?” He closed his eyes. “You can’t hide from me, you know. You think you can, but you can’t.” 

Rose backed up as quietly as she could, only stopping when she felt the wall behind her, and tried not to breathe.

Eyes still closed, he turned slowly in a circle. And stopped when he was facing her. He took a tentative step forward. 

He slowly opened his eyes. And stared right at her.

“Hello, Rose,” he said. “Very nice to see you again.”

 

 


	35. Chapter Thirty-Four

Captain Marion Price sat in the small, cluttered office attached to the Torchwood Four security office, studying Torchwood’s recent history on the computer. She had been assigned to find out “what was going on” at Torchwood by General Bambera, and she was riveted by what she had found out. Despite knowing about Torchwood and its mission to handle the Cybermen war and all types of alien contact, she had had no idea how many alien encounters there had been. And not just alien encounters. They had averted alien takeovers of the planet, and a large number of them. In fact, less than two months earlier they had stopped the alien invasion of a non-corporeal telepathic life form.

While she read the file, she gradually became aware of raised voices in the outer office.

“You’re the only one here?” a female voice asked, incredulous. “Where is everyone else?”

“Fired or arrested,” a young man answered. He sounded apologetic.

Deciding that this was as much a part of her investigation as studying the files, Captain Price quickly shut down the computer terminal and entered the other room. There were two people there, a young man with dark, almost black, hair, and a petite blonde who was pacing the room, obviously agitated. Both wore what Price had learned was the standard Torchwood security guard uniform of white shirts, khaki trousers and identification cards on lanyards around their necks. 

“So how many guards do we actually have on duty tonight?” the blonde demanded of the younger guard. Oliver Brooks, Price remembered.

“Seven,” Brooks answered. He sat at one of the CCTV monitoring terminals, facing the other guard. Behind him, a dozen screens were displaying various shots of empty hallways and the almost vacant car park.

“As many as seven?” the woman said sarcastically, stopping her pacing. 

“Yeah,” he answered. “Two at the gate, one at the main door, one in the Archives, one in the Dungeon and the two of us.”

She groaned and then noticed Captain Price in the doorway. “Who are you?”

“Captain Marion Price of UNIT, on special assignment from General Winifred Bambera to determine, and I quote, ‘what the bloody hell is going on at Torchwood.’ Unquote.” She looked down her nose at the smaller woman and raised an eyebrow. “And you are?”

“Sue Meyer,” she answered and held out a hand to Price, who shook it. “And as far as what’s going on here, your guess is as good as mine. Three fourths of the staff have either been fired or arrested, we’ve got rolling power outages, there are only seven guards on duty tonight, and evidently the head of the Department of Defense is personally conducting an inspection of the entire facility.”

Price’s brow furrowed. “I thought he was supposed to be at Number 10 tonight with the rest of the dignitaries.”

“He?” Brooks asked. “The person conducting the inspection is a woman.”

Captain Price quickly pulled out her mobile and typed in a number. “General Bambera?” she said. “Captain Marion Price. We’ve got a situation here at Torchwood.”

~oOo~

“Rose hasn’t responded to my text,” Ianto whispered in Toshiko’s ear. “I don’t know if she got it. I need to ring her about Dr. Collins.”

“Not yet,” Tosh said softly, trying to answer him without moving her lips. “Wait until we get past the guard.”

Toshiko, accompanied by Owen and Ianto, was crossing the tiny room that served as a lobby for the Dungeon, trying to hide her nervousness. On the far side of the room, a security guard rose from his seat behind the desk. The guard, who in his late thirties appeared far older than the other staff they had seen thus far, was a huge hulk of a man; broad shouldered, heavily muscled and with a military haircut, he towered over Tosh and Owen—and presumably Ianto, Tosh thought, but that was difficult to tell as Ianto was still wearing his perception filter—and looked like he could lift up both of them at the same time, one in each of his massive hands. And if that wasn’t enough, he was wearing what appeared to be a sonic blaster on his hip.

“May I help you?” he asked. His voice, a deep baritone, indicated that helping them was the last thing he was interested in doing.

Tosh pulled out the thin wallet that held the psychic paper and handed it to him. After looking at it, he stared suspiciously at Tosh and Owen, and then looked back down at the wallet in his hand. Suddenly Tosh remembered the Doctor had told her that the psychic paper didn’t work on everyone, that some people saw unexpected things in the paper, and some saw nothing at all.

After several long moments—in which Toshiko stopped breathing and felt as if her heart would stop as well—he handed the paper back and turned to Owen.

“Mr. Secretary, how can I be of assistance?”

As the guard was looking straight at him, Owen tried to hide the smirk he wanted to give to Toshiko. He was only partially successful.

“We’re here to inspect your holding facilities,” he said, examining the guard’s name tag. “Mitch, is it?” 

“Yes, sir. Mitch Reynolds.”

“Well then, Mitch, let’s take a look at your lockup here.” 

“I’m sorry, sir, but I have strict orders not to let anyone in.”

Owen raised an eyebrow. “Mitch,” he said in what he hoped sounded like a dangerous tone, “I am the head of the Defense Department, and if I want to go in and check to make certain that the prisoners are sufficiently detained, I can. And anyone who stands in my way might find that things get rather… unpleasant.”

Looking troubled, the guard nodded. “Yes, sir.” 

He turned to the heavy metal door that separated the lobby from the cells, placed his hand on the palm print scanner next to the door, and the door slid quietly open. He then moved to the side to allow Owen to pass through. But when Toshiko tried to enter, he stopped her.

“Sir,” he said, still addressing Owen, “we have some extremely dangerous prisoners here and her security clearance isn’t high enough.”

“Mitch, her security clearance is what I say it is, and I say it is high enough. I need her to take notes for me. Besides,” and now Owen gave him an exaggerated wink, “assistants are just supposed to stand around and look pretty, and she can’t do that if she’s on the other side of that door, can she?”

Toshiko bit back a retort and tried to school her face so her irritation with Owen wasn’t obvious.

“No, sir,” Reynolds said emphatically and moved to allow Toshiko to pass before passing through the doorway himself. Ianto quickly scooted in behind him before the door slid to a close.

“Now who are we currently detaining down here?” Owen asked conversationally as they walked down the hall.

Reynolds looked a bit uncomfortable at the question.

“All of our prisoners are people who have been accused of treason by the government,” Reynolds told him. 

“Really?” Owen asked, trying to sound surprised. “And do you think they’re guilty?”

“It’s not for me to say, sir,” he said. “That’s for other people to decide. It’s just my job to keep them locked up.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Owen responded.

As they walked down the hall, Owen periodically looked through the tiny windows in the cell doors.

“Everyone seems healthy and well treated,” he said, “although the accommodations seem a bit Spartan.”

“Better than we had in the Army,” Reynolds replied.

“Oh, yes,” Owen agreed, although the closest he had ever been to being in the military, besides as a member of Torchwood, was playing video games.

As Owen and the guard spoke, Ianto discovered that rather than the single hallway he expected, the Dungeon was set up as a grid; hallways intersected periodically, connecting parallel corridors which were lined with cells. He quickly walked down the halls, looking in the windows and searching for Pete Tyler. The rooms, all full up, each contained one person, many of whom he recognized and all he suspected were Torchwood staff members.

And then he saw someone in one of the cells that he hadn’t expected to see, and he rushed back to the others.

Toshiko was standing a small distance from Owen and Reynolds, so Ianto approached her and whispered in her ear. Her eyes widened at what he told her. Stepping closer to Owen, she cleared her throat.

“Sir,” she said, the term necessary for their cover but still grating, “perhaps we should continue.”

Owen turned towards her. When he saw the serious expression on her face, he nodded sharply and started again down the hall, the others trailing behind. 

“Would it be possible to open any of these cells, Mitch?” he asked. “I’d like to question some of the prisoners.”

Instead of responding, the guard froze, a look of a shock on his face, and then collapsed on the floor.

Ianto pulled his perception filter off, and to Owen and Tosh's surprise he was holding the guard’s sonic blaster.

“This was taking too long,” he said. “I found Jake. He’s two halls over, and he looks like he’s in a bad way.”

Ianto led the way, jogging back to the cell that held Jake Simmonds. Once there, Owen looked through the window. 

“Get the door open,” he ordered, nodding at the blaster still in Ianto’s hand. “Then go and find Director Tyler. And Doctor Jones. I may need her help.”

Ianto shot the door handle, creating a perfectly square hole, and the door swung open of its own accord. As Owen entered the cell, Ianto turned to Toshiko. 

“You start looking for them. I’ll join you in a minute, but first I need to ring Rose.”

~oOo~

Rose stood with her back against the wall in her stepfather’s office, trapped between a filing cabinet and a heavy, metal shelving unit. Frank Collins, her step-father’s friend and Torchwood Four’s former doctor, stood between her and the door, blocking her only possible escape. And to her shock, despite her perception filter, he could somehow see her.

“I can sense your surprise,” Collins said. “But is it because you’re surprised to see me, or because you’re surprised I can see you? Because it’s odd. I couldn’t see you at first, and now I can. But even now, you aren’t clear, as if you are shielded somehow. Very clever. Had I known Torchwood had something like that available, it would have made everything so much easier.”

Rose glanced over his shoulder. Although the room was relatively small, the distance between her and the door might as well have been a mile away. There was no way she could cross that distance without being caught. And she couldn’t fight him. She no longer had the element of surprise and he had at least six inches and fifty pounds on her. Not to mention the fact that he was just far enough away that she couldn’t reach him to punch him or knee him in the groin, and being blocked as she was by the shelves and the filing cabinet she couldn’t do a roundhouse kick as she had with Lisa. 

“You look good with red hair, by the way,” he continued, slipping one hand into his jacket pocket. “I’m assuming it’s supposed to be some sort of disguise. It might work for some people but not for someone who knows you as well as I do.”

Rose’s eyes widened as she saw him pull a small spray vial out of her pocket. It was a match to the one Lisa had used against her. _Damn_ , she thought. She no longer had a choice. She’d have to try to get past him.

Ducking to try to avoid his hands, she tried to dodge him but he caught her anyway. While she struggled to get away, he sprayed her with the vial.

_Not again_ , she thought, and fell into unconsciousness.

~oOo~

The Doctor stared at Lisa. “So how is Frank Collins involved in all of this? His name wasn’t on the list of GBF members.”

“I don’t remember,” she told him. “He’s not GBF, or at least he wasn’t.” She looked at him pleadingly. “I’m telling the truth. You’ve got to believe me.”

He gritted his teeth and nodded. “I do. There’s still enough gaps in your memory you could drive a fleet of lorries through them. But he’s undoubtedly the one who did this to you. Of the people you showed me, he had the easiest access to Ret-Con, plus he was the one who said you had tested negative for it. Of course he would, if he was the one who gave it to you.” He paused, closing his eyes to run his own memory of events through his mind. Then his eyes flew open. “And he was here when you kidnapped Rose. He must have helped you get out of here.”

She shook her head. “I don’t remember that. I still don’t even remember kidnapping her.”

He scrubbed his face and sighed loudly. “I know you don’t,” he said. “I would have seen it in your mind if you did.” He pursed his lips and looked at the door. “Speaking of Rose, she should have been here by now. I’ve got to go find her.” 

The Doctor stood up and walked to the door. When she stood to follow him, he turned and shook his finger at her. “You stay here. I can’t watch you and look for her at the same time.”

“You don’t need to watch me,” she said. “I want to take Frank Collins down as much as you do.”

“I believe you,” he told her. “But I still don’t trust you. And until I can, you stay put.”

Her look shot daggers at him which he ignored as he left. Once outside the door, he pulled out his screwdriver and sonicked the lock. “With you locked up, that’s one less thing to worry about,” he said under his breath and headed out of the infirmary and towards Pete’s office.

~oOo~

As Rose regained consciousness, her head pounding with a blinding headache, she discovered she was tied wrist and ankles to an office chair with heavy duty zip ties, undoubtedly from the utility closet down the hall. Not only had he tied her up, she realized, but he had searched her as well because both her mobile and her perception filter sat on the desk in front of her captor.

“Welcome back,” Collins said with a glance at his watch. “Ten minutes. Not bad. I should make a note of that. I’m trying to refine the perichloridol to be more predictable in how it affects people.”

“Glad to be of help,” she replied sarcastically and then winced at the automatic eyeroll she gave him. “How long do you plan on keeping me here?”

“Not long,” he said. “It’s not you I want, you know. It’s the Doctor. Reportedly the two of you are practically joined at the hip, and since you’re here, he’s undoubtedly around here somewhere as well. Eventually he’s going to come looking for you.” 

At that, they both heard the door of the outer office opening. As Rose turned towards the sound, Collins grabbed the perception filter. 

“Right on time,” Collins said softly. “Let’s see if this thing really works.” He pulled on the perception filter and quietly made his way across the room.

_“Rose?”_

Rose strained to keep an eye on Collins, but it was difficult to make him out, even knowing he was there.

“Don’t come in,” she yelled but wasn’t surprised when the Doctor rushed in anyway. “Watch out!”

“What?” the Doctor asked, looking around the small room. And then collapsed after the almost invisible Collins sprayed him in the face with the same vial he had used on Rose.


	36. Chapter Thirty-Five

Troubled, General Winifred Bambera rang off and stared at her mobile thoughtfully for a moment before shoving it back into the pocket of her dress uniform. And then after a tug to pull her jacket back into place and an absentminded touch of her medals to straighten them, she walked into the ballroom of Number 10 Downing Street.

She hadn't wanted to attend the meeting; in her opinion functions like these were one of the most boring and distasteful duties of her job. As the head of Great Britain's armed forces, however, she had been required to attend the formal dinner hosting the heads of state of the European Alliance. Well, unlike the other women in attendance, at least she wasn't required to wear a formal gown. The reason she didn't want to wear one wasn't vanity; with her short cropped hair only beginning to turn grey, her relatively unlined dark skin, and her still fit body, she knew she looked damned good for a woman in her early 70s and would look a far sight better in any of the strapless, sequined gowns than most of the other women there. But Bambera was far more comfortable in a uniform and always had been. She was a soldier; her uniform symbolized that.

Besides, she thought, her uniform had pockets. Gowns did not.

As she crossed into the room, greeting those she knew and nodding to those she didn't, her mind returned to the conversations she had just had with Captain Price and Captain Magambo. To say they concerned her was an understatement, and after half a century in the armed forces she considered herself pretty unflappable. Price had reported that Harrison Keeling had either arrested or fired most of the staff of Torchwood Four, Torchwood Two had been destroyed by person or persons unknown, and the staff of Torchwood Three was on the run. According to Magambo, there was no evidence of wrongdoing by anyone at Torchwood Three, and Price had reported the same in regards to Torchwood Four. Not only that, there was currently only a skeleton staff on duty in Torchwood Four, if that, and they had had electrical outages and someone was currently roaming the building pretending to be the Secretary of Defense. That last bit was the most outrageous, and incredibly cheeky, Bambera thought. To think whoever it was could just enter a building pretending to be a high ranking member of government… But evidently the person had. And of course there was no question as to whether it was actually the Secretary of Defense. The general knew the Secretary wasn't there; from where she stood, she could see the Secretary on the other side of the ballroom talking to Keeling and President Greene.

So who was wandering the halls of Torchwood pretending to be the Secretary?

Bambera knew that technically she should do something about the Torchwood situation. However Price had also told her that there was no evidence that Director Tyler was a traitor, quite the reverse in fact. He had served his country well in the fight against the Cybermen, and continued to serve it in his role of Torchwood's director. Pete Tyler, his daughter and her 'friend' had even stopped an alien invasion only weeks earlier.

Her gut told her that there was far more going on than she knew. Not to mention that based on what was currently going on at Torchwood, Keeling was either incompetent or had an agenda. Or both. And she wanted to know which it was before she made a move. Because she had spent her life serving her country, and that did not necessarily mean serving Greene and Keeling. She had no husband, no children to be affected by her actions if in the end they were called treasonous. She was going to do what was right.

Just as soon as she figured out what that was.

Pursing her lips, she made a snap decision, the way she always had. Her ability to size up a situation and quickly choose a course of action had served her well on the battlefield, and it would do so here as well. She pulled her mobile back out of her pocket.

"Magambo, this is General Bambera. Break off the investigation in Wales. Yes, completely withdraw. Then get back to London. I have a feeling I'm going to need you here shortly."

Next she rang Captain Price back at Torchwood Four.

"Price, I want you to sit tight. Continue to investigate, but take no action without my express approval. Remember you report only to me; disregard any orders from anyone else you may receive, no matter who it is."

Decisions made and set into motion, Bambera put her mobile back in her pocket and crossed to the bar for a soft drink. She knew she'd need her wits about her this evening.

~oOo~

Marion Price disconnected the call only to find the two security guards studying the CCTV.

"There's something wrong with these cameras," Meyer said. "See here? It looks like it's pointing at the ground, rather than at the door. And this one looks like it's pointing at the ceiling." She moved to another station and studied more of the displays. "Hold on, there are two guards at the front gate."

"Yeah," Brooks responded.

"But you said there were only seven guards on duty."

"Yeah," he repeated. "Two at the front gate, one at the front entrance, one in Archives, one in the Dungeon and the two of us."

Sue shook her head. "George Filbin is up in the infirmary. He's the one who sent me down here. That would make eight guards, not seven, Ollie."

"You're wrong," he told her. "Filbin's manning the gate."

She stared at him. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "He has been all evening."

"Well if George is at the front gate, who is up in the infirmary?" She turned back to the screen in front of her. "Ollie, put the CCTV feed of the infirmary on this monitor."

A live shot of the infirmary appeared in front of her. It was empty; no one was there and nothing was out of place save the tray of medical equipment Sue had knocked onto the floor while walking across the room in the dark. She shook her head in disbelief.

"Someone came up to the infirmary and told me to come down here," she insisted. "If it wasn't George, it was someone who could do a damned good impersonation of him." She shook her head. "I don't believe it. We've got someone, a woman, wandering around in here impersonating the Secretary of Defense and someone else, a man, impersonating a guard." She took a deep breath and let it out in a rush. "Okay, since I'm the most senior security officer here, I'm taking charge. We need to rerun the CCTV and find out how the intruders got in here, and how many of them there are, and what they want. To do that, we need to institute a lockdown. We need to get all the staff together, everyone from scientists down to janitorial staff and file clerks, and then all of us need to search the building floor by floor, quadrant by quadrant and find them."

"No."

Meyer whirled around to see Captain Price watching her. "Oh, I forgot you were here. What do you mean, no?"

"I mean no. You are not the most senior security officer here. As Torchwood is now a member of UNIT, I outrank you, and I have express orders from General Bambera that we are to take no action without her direct say so. You can run the CCTV, but you are not instituting a lockdown, and you are not doing a floor by floor search."

Furious at being countermanded by someone outside of Torchwood, Sue Meyer opened her mouth to argue, but Price interrupted her.

"Save it," she said. "Instead of running around trying to catch them with inadequate staff, let's put Torchwood's intelligence resources to use and figure out what's going on."

After a moment, Meyer nodded sharply. "Agreed."

~oOo~

As Owen Harper evaluated Jake's injuries, and loudly cursed the fact that he had no medical equipment save a first aid kit that had been in an emergency cupboard and largely consisted of two inch plasters and a small blister pack of paracetamol, Toshiko Sato ran through the corridors of the Dungeon, peeking through the observation windows looking for Pete Tyler and Martha Jones.

Meanwhile, Ianto Jones was trying to ring Rose on her mobile to warn her that Frank Collins was in the building and that he strongly suspected Collins was the traitor. But when he phoned her, he was immediately transferred to voice mail. Likewise with the Doctor's mobile. Ianto wasn't surprised by that; he knew that the Doctor rarely remembered to turn on his mobile, but Rose always kept hers on. The fact that she wasn't answering her phone, and even more that it had been on before and now appeared to be off, was troubling to say the least.

After several unsuccessful tries, Ianto gave up and began to search the Dungeon himself. Not only did Jake need help urgently, but Ianto wasn't completely familiar with the settings of the blaster he had used on the guard. He might be out for hours, or he might come to any time. And despite the guard being unarmed, he was more than a match for them. The only reason Ianto had been able to disarm him was the fact that he had been virtually invisible wearing the perception filter. Not being entirely certain how they worked, even after the Doctor's explanation, he wasn't sure it'd work twice with the guard.

"Ianto!" Toshiko yelled, her voice echoing through the corridors. "I found Director Tyler. Get over here with the guard's blaster."

Ianto ran towards the sound of her voice. She was several corridors away from him, standing in front of a door in the middle of the hall.

"He's in there," she said, gesturing towards the door as he ran up to her. She stood back as he shot at the lock as he had earlier with Jake's door. The square hole that the blaster produced this time was much smaller than the one on Jake's door, but it still managed to do the trick. As the door swung open, Ianto glanced at the display that showed how much power was left in the blaster.

"Battery's almost dead," he told Toshiko. "The special features on these things really drain 'em."

She nodded as Pete emerged from his cell, a huge grin on his face.

"Good to see you, Ianto," he said, vigorously shaking his hand. He turned to Toshiko, trying to place her.

"Toshiko Sato, Torchwood Three," she said, holding out her hand. "We met years ago at a conference."

Pete nodded and shook her hand as well. "Good to see you too. Okay, I need a situation report, but first, are Jackie and Tony okay?"

Toshiko nodded. "Rose got them out of London, and we left them at her house with Gwen Williams."

"Good," Pete said, relieved. "Now how about here?"

Ianto filled him in with everything they knew: that most of the Torchwood staff had been arrested or fired; that they had left the Doctor with Lisa in the infirmary and Rose in Pete's office, but that neither of them were responding to their mobiles; that they had found Jake in one of the other cells but he was badly injured; and that it was likely that Frank Collins was the traitor.

Pete stared at them incredulously. "Are you sure?" At the looks on their faces, Pete's face darkened. "You're sure."

"I couldn't swear by it, but I'm sure. He's here, and he shouldn't be. We saw him get off the Dungeon's lift when we were getting on."

Cursing, Pete began to pace back and forth across the narrow hallway, looking like he wanted to punch something. Or someone. Finally after several long moments, he took a deep breath and let it out in a rush, trying to calm himself.

"Director," Ianto prompted, "Whatever we do, we have to do quickly. I knocked out the guard, but I don't know for how long."

Pete nodded sharply. His fury over his friend's betrayal would have to wait. "Okay," he said, calm for the moment, "here's the plan. First, we let everyone out. We're going to need reinforcements if nothing else. We could open the cells individually with the guard's ID card, but it'll take too long to do them all one by one. I don't have my card with me, but I might be able to override the system and open all the doors from the guard's desk. If they haven't canceled my security clearance yet.'

"I can help with that, but first we need to find Dr. Jones," Toshiko said. "Owen needs her help with Jake."

Pete nodded. "Ianto, you go get the guard's ID while Toshiko and I look for Martha. Then come find us."

"And if the guard wakes up while I'm trying to steal his ID?"

"Tell him he's either with us or against us. And if he's not with us, knock him out again."

"Battery's almost dead," Ianto told him. He held up the blaster to Pete, display out, so the other man could see it for himself.

"Nah, you've got plenty of power," Pete said, a lie none of them believed. "And worse comes to worse you could always hit him over the head with it."

"Got it," Ianto said. "If persuasion doesn't work, take the direct approach." He turned and ran down the hall.

~oOo~

The Doctor's head pounded as he slowly regained consciousness. He tried to raise his hand to rub his temple, only to discover he was tied to a chair. Again. It was really unbelievable how often that had happened to him over the centuries.

"Welcome back."

He looked up and quickly took in his surroundings. He was still in Pete's Torchwood office, and Frank Collins was sitting opposite him, behind Pete's desk. And lying on the desk were both his and Rose's mobiles and perception filters, his opera glasses and the other miscellaneous contents of his pockets. And his sonic screwdriver.

"I was beginning to wonder when you'd come to," Collins continued.

"I was starting to get worried about you," Rose said in a low voice. He turned his head towards the sound of her voice. He saw she was tied to an identical chair on the other side of the room.

"Takes more than a little knock on the head to keep me down." He tried to wink at her and it turned into a wince.

Rose grimaced in sympathy. "Next time I tell you to not come in someplace, listen to me, yeah?"

The Doctor shrugged noncommittally. As he began to pull on the restraints holding him to the chair, testing their strength, he felt them cut sharply into his skin. Curiously, he looked down at his wrists. Whatever was holding him in place was slightly hidden by the sleeves of his black leather jacket. He wriggled his arm, just enough to slightly move his sleeve, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Heavy duty zip ties. That's new. I've been tied up a lot of times–handcuffs, duct tape, rope, once even with a Zapuldi tree snake, now there's a story–but I don't remember ever being tied up with zip ties before. By the way, what did you hit me with?" he asked. Before the other man could answer, Rose spoke.

"He didn't. He was wearing my perception filter and sprayed you with perichloridol. He used it on me too. It's the stuff that Lisa used when she kidnapped me. You hit your head when you fell."

He moved his mouth around, a thoughtful expression on his face, and then nodded. "Yeah, I can taste it."

"What with you being an alien, or part alien at least, I didn't know how you'd react to it," Collins interjected. "Interesting experiment. You actually were out slightly longer than Rose. But I didn't give either of you much. Had I given you full doses, you'd be out most of the night, and I just don't have that kind of time."

"Oh, what's the rush, Frank," the Doctor said. "It's not like we're going anywhere." He glanced down at his wrists pointedly before looking back up at him.

"If it were just the two of you, perhaps," he answered. "But it's not. It seems we have a number of other unwanted guests in the building as well. I can't risk them finding us here before I finish with the two of you."

"Doctor, he could see me while I was wearing my perception filter," Rose told him.

"Really? I'm not surprised. He must have known you were there. They don't work as well if you know the person wearing it is there."

"But how would he have known?"

"Oh, I imagine Frank here is telepathic, or else strongly empathic. He'd be able to sense someone in the room. Then it would just be a matter of looking for the source of emotions." The Doctor sat back in his chair and looked at the other man thoughtfully. When he continued, his voice took on a light, casual tone.

"Soooo, Frank. How long has it been?"

"How long has what been?" Collins asked.

"How long have you been joined?"

Collins' eyes narrowed, but he didn't respond.

"Joined?" Rose asked. "He was joined?"

"Oh, yes. Frank here has been joined with one of the Kern. Stands to reason. You see, Lisa told me he wasn't part of the GBF. So on the way over here from the infirmary, I wondered: why would he be helping them? Only thing that made sense was that he became joined at some point."

He turned back to Collins. "You were the one who gave Lisa Hallett Ret-Con. I scanned her. My sonic is much more accurate than any 21st century testing techniques and she was definitely Ret-conned. But that doesn't matter because you never bothered testing her for it, did you? Very handy, that, giving her the drug and then being the one who was supposed to test her for it. And everyone believed you when you said she hadn't been drugged. Well, why shouldn't they? Head of Torchwood's medical department, trusted employee, personal friend of the director… Were you the one who dumped her off near the London Eye? Of course, you had to have been. You couldn't trust that little duty to anyone else, couldn't risk anyone finding out about you.

"So obviously, you were already joined by that time. And when Lisa kidnapped Rose, you helped her get Rose out of here without being seen, didn't you? At the time I didn't think you could have been involved, after all you were with us, but you had been called away to take care of some sort of medical emergency before Pete and I discovered Rose was missing. Lisa must have called you for help in getting her out. So you must have been a part of all this before then."

The Doctor cocked his head to the side, brow furrowed, and stared at him appraisingly. Suddenly his eyes opened wide.

"Of course! It was that first night! Remember, Rose, the first time Pete brought me here?" he asked, his eyes never leaving Collins' face. "He showed me around, even had Collins give me a very brief physical. But I don't think I ever told you this part. The power flickered, right before we left. I remember even teasing Pete about it. That must have been when you became joined. And Lisa was here that night as well. So what did you do, make contact with her immediately? Because by joining you would have known Lisa was joined as well."

Collins raised one eyebrow.

"But tell me something, though. Lisa was able to hold her own, a bit anyway. But most human telepaths and empaths wouldn't be able to. And I doubt Frank could. So how much of him is left? Is he even in there at all anymore?"

"Oh, he's still here, but you're right, there's not much of him left. But you, you'd be able to hold your own." Collins stared at him appraisingly. "You know, when Frank first met you, he never guessed you are part alien. He thought you were completely human, and a rather ordinary one at that. But you're not. We saw into your mind when you made telepathic contact with us. You are really quite dangerous, aren't you?"

"Am I?" the Doctor asked, sounding as if the thought had never occurred to him.

"Of course you are. Keeling wants you destroyed. But I think you would be a very powerful ally. I'll give you one more chance to join us, Doctor, and I recommend you take it."

"No."

"Too bad," he said. "Because we can't risk letting you go. But if you won't join us, perhaps Rose will. Having Pete Tyler's own daughter, the Vitex heiress, as a part of our group will go a long way to establishing legitimacy in the eyes of the public."

In that instant, the Doctor's demeanor changed, and the temperature of the room seemed to grow a few degrees colder.

"Leave her alone," he ordered, putting the full force of the Oncoming Storm behind his words. And there was a flicker of fear in Collins' eyes which he quickly suppressed.

"She's not telepathic," the Doctor continued. "Trying to have her join the Kern would kill her."

"I don't think so," Collins said. He turned and looked at her. "In fact, I think she'll make an excellent host. I can sense she's had a great deal of telepathic contact in the past, and that has just paved the way for her joining now." He looked up sharply and narrowed his eyes at the Doctor. "I'm sensing guilt from you. Is it because you've somehow made her ready for this by having telepathic contact with her?" He stared at him again, as if he were trying to read the Doctor's mind, but after a moment he shook his head. "I can tell that's part of it, but there's more, isn't there? I don't know why, but you seem to think that you're responsible for all of this."

Rose turned and stared at the Doctor. "How could you…" she began, but the Doctor ignored her.

"You know, even if you are successful, I can still remove it from her."

"You won't be able to," the other man told him. "You'll be dead."

The Doctor's eyebrows shot up. "You're going to kill me? You don't have the guts," he said mockingly.

"No?" he asked. "I just left Simmonds for dead in the Dungeon, and Frank liked him. You'll be easy."

Reaching into his pocket, Collins pulled out a small, square battery, one the Doctor and Rose both recognized as containing the unbonded Kern. As he carried over to Rose, it began to glow with a faint blue light.

The Doctor's heart began to beat wildly in fright. "Fight it, Rose," he practically yelled. "I know you can do it."

As Collins approached, holding out the battery, Rose tried to back away from him, but with her ankles fastened to the chair it was a futile gesture. As the battery grew near, the blue light of the Kern grew stronger. It began to arch towards her hand and when it touched her fingertips it disappeared. For a split second the Doctor saw Rose's light brown eyes glow blue.

"No!" he cried, struggling against the restraints. "Rose, fight it! I know you can!"

Rose shook with the effort to fight off the Kern, her body tense and her face screwed up with the effort. She took several deep breaths as if to steel herself and then exhaled hard, as if she were trying to blow them out of her body. After several unsuccessful attempts, she collapsed against the back of her chair, exhausted by the effort.

"Rose," the Doctor said desperately, "Don't give up. Do whatever you have to do to fight it."

She looked over at him, her eyes still glowing blue.

"I'm sorry," she mouthed and closed her eyes, but this time when she reopened them, they shone with an unearthly golden light.

Suddenly, there was a roaring sound and a blinding flash of light and the Doctor could feel an almost searing heat on the exposed skin of his face and hands. He immediately closed his eyes and turned his head as far away as he could. After a moment, when he could feel the air around him begin to cool, he opened them again. The brightness of the explosion of energy had caused momentary blindness, and he blinked his eyes to clear his vision. And then what he saw terrified him.

Across the room, both Rose and Collins lay on the floor, unmoving.

"Rose," he screamed.

The Doctor struggled against the ties but it was futile. No matter how hard he tried, they were too strong to break. And then he spotted his sonic screwdriver on the desk. Perfect. Grateful for rubber soled shoes, he dug his toes into the floor and pulled himself inch by inch across the room, finally making it to a position next to the desk. But due to the ties around his wrists he still couldn't reach it. Gritting his teeth, in one move he leaned forward, resting his weight on his toes, and shoving his arm further through the zip tie. It was almost enough, but not quite. It was still a scarce fingertip's width out of reach. Pushing harder against the back of his chair as leverage, he managed to force his arm further through the restraint. This time he touched it, but it rolled slightly out of reach.

"NO!" he shouted and tried it again. This time he was able to just capture it with his fingertips. With a move born of centuries of practice, he pulled it into his hand and began cutting through his restraints before the chair he was tied to had even come to a rest on the floor.

Now freed, he rushed to Rose. She wasn't breathing. Fighting off panic, he rolled her onto her back and tilted her head back, clearing her airway. He pinched her nose and blew three short breaths into her mouth. Then he rested his ear on her chest. Her heart was beating. It was weak, but it was beating. But she still wasn't breathing.

Over and over he gave her artificial respiration, checking periodically to see if she had begun to breathe on her own. Finally, after a couple of minutes she gasped and began to cough. Panting due to the rush of adrenalin in his body, he tried to slow his heart rate, but wasn't sure if the fear that had caused it would ever be completely gone.

Rose's eyes fluttered open. "Hello," she whispered weakly, and then began coughing again.

"Don't talk," he suggested, and she nodded and closed her eyes.

He bent over and for a moment rested his forehead on hers, breathing a sigh of relief. He could have lost her. And this time she truly would have been gone, not safe with her family in a parallel universe.

He knew if he allowed his feelings to overtake him, he wouldn't be able to function to sort the rest of this, so he shoved them down as far as he could. Normally he'd ignore them indefinitely, so that they'd just be an uncomfortable buzz in the background along with everything else he found painful, to be forgotten–as much as a Time Lord could ever forget anything–and allow him to pretend that the feelings didn't exist. But he'd never been able to do that with Rose. And it would be even more difficult now that they had become lovers.

Putting his thoughts aside for the moment, he got up and walked over to where Frank Collins lay on the floor. He was lying on his back, his neck in an unnatural position, his eyes fixed and unseeing. And the skin of his face and hands looked red, almost as if he had received a bad sunburn.

A quick check confirmed what the Doctor already knew. The man was dead. And at the moment he couldn't bring himself to care.

As the Doctor crossed back over to Rose, he forced himself to put on the persona of a dispassionate doctor. He knelt down beside her to check her condition again. Breathing, even. Pulse, strong and steady. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and scanned her. Oxygen saturation in her blood, normal. And other vital signs within acceptable limits.

After he had discovered the artron energy in her system, he had adjusted the programming on his sonic to be able to scan for it in more minute quantities. Now he scanned for that as well. Not surprisingly, her artron energy level was much, much lower than it had been. He still didn't know how she had done that, how she had managed to control the energy to the extent that she'd be able to harness it to fight off a Kern attack. But somehow she had.

Rose had fallen asleep, and he took advantage of that to examine her in ways the sonic screwdriver couldn't. First brushing the hair from her face, he reached down and touched her temple, barely grazing the skin with his fingertips, and probed the surface of her mind. Thankfully, she had only drifted off into a light dream state and didn't appear in any danger, so he gently dug deeper, looking for any remaining trace of the Kern. Thankfully, there was none.

Relieved, he retrieved his mobile from where it lay on Pete's desk, turned it on and rang Owen.

"Did you find them?" he asked.

"Yes," the other man said. "Where are you?"

"Pete's office," the Doctor replied. "You need to get up here immediately. Rose's been hurt."


	37. Chapter 36

In the security office, Sue scanned the various CCTV monitors scattered throughout the room. Normally there were a minimum of a half a dozen security guards manning the office in addition to the various guards spread out over the rest of the Torchwood compound, but with so many fired or in custody, only Ollie had been watching the monitors.

Captain Price turned away from the monitor she had been looking at to question him.

"Ollie," she said, "other than someone impersonating a security guard by the infirmary and a woman wandering around the facility pretending to be the Secretary of Defense, has anything else unusual been going on tonight?"

"Yes," he answered. "Someone broke into Director Tyler's, I mean Director Keeling's office a little while ago." Sue whirled around and stared at him.

"And you didn't see fit to mention that before?" she demanded. "I hope you at least notified Director Keeling."

"No," he replied. "The Director left specific instructions to ring Dr. Collins, I mean Secretary Collins if anything unusual happened."

"Secretary Collins?" Price asked. "Secretary Frank Collins of the NIH?" He nodded. "Why would you notify him?"

"Probably because he used to be the head of the medical department here until maybe a couple of months ago," Sue interjected.

"Plus he was already here," Ollie said. "When the office was opened, I called him and he said he'd check it out himself."

"How long ago was that?" Sue asked.

"About a half an hour ago," he answered.

"Ring him again," Sue said. "Make sure everything's okay."

As he turned to make the call, Price frowned.

"Why would he want to check it out himself? And why would he be here in the first place?" She turned back to the monitors. "Do any of these show the interior of the director's office?"

"No," Sue answered. "Only the hallway outside of the office." She pointed to a monitor on the far side of the room. "That one flips between four cameras that run down the hall from the director's office to the lifts." She walked over to it. Captain Price followed and looked over her shoulder. The screen was currently showing a shot of the area outside the lifts. She pressed a button to change the camera shot. It changed to a view of the hall outside the loos. Pressing it again, it showed a long hallway lined with office doors.

"Is this the hall with the director's office?" she asked.

Sue shook her head. "No, that's the next view." She pressed a button and the screen went dark. "Huh, the camera must be out."

"Are you really surprised?"

"No, just frustrated," Sue answered.

"So we've got a camera out here," Price said, "and several in the lobby which were pointed in the wrong direction. Is there any way to check on the rest of the cameras without checking them one by one?"

"Yes." Sue walked to a nearby computer terminal. "We can't check if any of the cameras are pointed in the wrong direction, but we should be able to tell if any of them are out." Her fingers flew across the keyboard. Brow furrowed, she exchanged glances with the UNIT captain. "It looks like we have six cameras out, all of them in an area near the infirmary and the director's office."

Ollie hung up the telephone and turned to the two women. "Secretary Collins isn't answering his mobile."

Sue turned to the UNIT officer. "Captain, surely you aren't going to tell me we shouldn't check that out?"

"You can call me Marion," she answered. "And that is exactly what I'm saying. My orders are to take no action at this time. We need to get the CCTV on again and find out who the intruders are and what they want before I contact the general again."

Sue frowned. Ollie turned to her questioningly.

"Well, you heard her," she said to him irritably. "Get those cameras working again."

~oOo~

"Doctor," Owen said into his mobile, "what's going on with Rose?"

" _She was attacked by the Kern. She managed to fight them off, but in the struggle she was hurt and she stopped breathing for a while_ ," he heard the Doctor answer. _"I gave her artificial respiration, and she's started breathing again. She's stabilized, but… I need you to take over because I think I'm too close to the situation."_

By now Owen knew the Doctor well enough to know that he must be badly shaken to be willing to admit that.

"Doctor, we've found Jake down here, and he's in a bad way," Owen told him. "As soon as we find Martha Jones, I can leave him with her, but until then I've got to stay here. Just keep an eye on her, and I'll get up there as quick as I can. In the meantime, if she gets worse, ring me again."

Owen rang off and hollered for Ianto.

"Get a move on and find that Martha Jones! I need her help with Jake."

Pete and Toshiko had tried, and failed, to find a way to open all the doors to the cells at once, so Ianto and Tosh were in the process of opening up all the cells in the Dungeon, Ianto using the guard's ID card on the scanners next to the door and Tosh using the psychic paper. It had taken Tosh a few minutes to remember that the psychic paper could work on the scanners, which had delayed things a bit. While she and Ianto worked on the cells, Pete was searching the computer at the guard's desk for information on who was on duty that evening and their current locations.

"We're working on it," Ianto yelled back to Owen.

"Well, work faster!" Owen yelled.

From three corridors over, Toshiko opened the cell of a petite black woman. The woman's face lit up as she jumped off the bunk.

"Are you here to let me out?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes," Tosh answered. "Are you Dr. Jones?"

"Yes," she told her.

"Thank God. We need your help."

Toshiko led the way to the cell where Jake still lay unconscious. "In here," she said.

"Well, it's about time, Tosh," Owen said when he saw the two women in the doorway.

"Jake," Martha said in surprise and rushed to his side. In a glance, she took in the cuts and bruises. "What are his vitals?"

"Breathing shallow, pulse thready," he answered. "Broken nose, possible fractured ribs, various contusions. Probably drugged. We need to get him to the infirmary, but I don't want to move him until he's stabilized."

Martha turned to Toshiko, who was still standing by the door. "Cell number 50, end of the hall in the corner. It's used as a storage cupboard and there's medical equipment in there including a stretcher."

Tosh rushed from the room.

"You must be Martha Jones," Owen said. "Owen Harper, Torchwood Three. Do you think you can handle this? I've got another patient in Director Tyler's office."

"Who?" Pete said from the doorway. He grimaced when he saw Jake. "Is he going to be alright?"

"Besides his injuries, we think he was drugged. If we can figure out what he was given, I should be able to give him a counteragent," Martha answered. By now Toshiko had returned with an emergency medical trolley. Behind her, Ianto was pushing a wheeled stretcher. "We'll know more when I can examine him in the infirmary."

"Who's the patient in my office?" Pete asked.

"Rose," Owen answered. Pete's jaw tightened as he tried to control his anger.

"The Doctor's with her," Owen assured him, "but I need to get up there and check on her myself."

Pete nodded tightly before turning to the others. "Toshiko and Ianto, you two help Martha get Jake up to the infirmary. Owen, you head to my office and help the Doctor with Rose. I'll be right behind you. Now that the rest of the staff is released, it's time to take back Torchwood."

~oOo~

"Ollie, have you got the cameras up and running yet?" Captain Price asked.

"Not yet," he answered. Instead of working on the computer he was staring thoughtfully at one of the monitors. "Sue, Mitch Reynolds is not at his post."

"Where is he supposed to be tonight?" she asked, crossing over to him.

"He's in the Dungeon. I suppose he could be in the loo or something."

She rolled her eyes. "With all the rest of the things going on tonight, I doubt it. Did you try calling him?"

"Yeah, and he's not answering."

The two women looked over his shoulder at the monitor displaying the lobby of the Dungeon. As they watched, the door leading to the cells opened. Several people walked out, two of them rolling out a stretcher. They all crossed over to the lift and got in.

"Could you see who they were?" Price asked.

Both Ollie and Sue shook their heads.

"Switch over to the interior of the lift," she ordered, but before either of them could do that, more people began to pour from the door to the cells.

"What the hell's going on?" Sue asked.

Price raised one eyebrow. "Looks like a prison break. I'm assuming Director Tyler's in that group."

"Yes." Sue pointed him out on the screen. "And that's the head of security, the head of research, the head of IT…"

"There's too many people there to be just department heads," Price said.

"I don't recognize all of them, but that doesn't mean anything," Sue replied. "Torchwood is a big place. I don't even know how many departments we have."

"Should we be doing something about that?" Ollie asked doubtfully, gesturing at the screen.

"Seriously, Ollie?" Sue asked, staring at him. "What do you suggest we do? There's got to be fifty people down there. We could shut down the lift, but then they'd just take the stairs. Besides, if you had to choose between Director Tyler and Director Keeling, which one do _you_ think is on the side of the angels?"

"Time to call the general," Price said, pulling out her mobile and walking to the other side of the room. After a quick conversation, she rejoined the others.

"General Bambera still wants us to monitor the situation, but she wants me to find Secretary Collins. And I think the best place to start looking is the director's office."

~oOo~

Once the lift doors opened, Toshiko and Ianto helped Martha get Jake to the infirmary, and Owen rushed to the director's office. Once there he froze in the doorway.

The Doctor was sitting crosslegged on the floor. Rose's head was in his lap and he was gently stroking her hair. On the other side of the room, the man he had seen get off the lift earlier, whom Ianto had said was Frank Collins, lay motionless on the floor.

Owen began to cross to him first, and the Doctor stopped him.

"Don't bother," he said tonelessly. "He's dead."

"Yeah, I can see that," Owen said slowly. "Wanna tell me how?"

"Not really."

Owen knelt down next to the Doctor and began to take Rose's pulse. "What happened to you?" he asked.

The Doctor gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"You've got a lump on your forehead the size of a turkey egg, blood dripping out of your sleeve and what looks like sunburn on your face, neck and hands. It looks like you and he," he jerked his head at Collins, "were caught in some sort of an energy burst. You're lucky that you were wearing that leather jacket. Otherwise your burns would be far more extensive."

The Doctor shrugged and pulled up the sleeve of his jacket. His arm was covered with a series of parallel scratches that were still bleeding.

"Huh. Must have happened when I was reaching for my sonic screwdriver," he said.

"Well, we need to get Rose to the infirmary," Owen said. "And you too. You're bleeding all over the floor."

The Doctor pulled his screwdriver out of his pocket, adjusted the setting with his thumb and handed it to Owen.

"Five seconds on the cuts, seven seconds on the bump on the head, then switch over to setting 238-B for the worst of the burns."

"Take off your jacket."

The Doctor struggled out of the heavy leather jacket and put it to the side. He winced slightly as Owen began to sonic his injuries.

Owen had seen the Doctor use his sonic before, but he still was amazed when the deep scratches began to heal in front of his eyes. The sonic reduced the swelling on the Doctor's head as well. He switched the setting to the one the Doctor had mentioned and began to use it on the burned and blistered skin of his hands and face.

"Is Rose alright?" Pete asked from the doorway. His eyes widened as he spotted Collins on the floor.

"I think so," Owen answered. "But we'll know more when I've had a chance to examine her in the infirmary."

"Is he…" He nodded at Collins.

"Yeah," the Doctor answered.

"The question I have is," Owen asked, "why were you and Dr. Collins burned and there's not a mark on Rose?"

Silence hung heavy in the air as the Doctor didn't answer, and Pete exchanged glances with Owen.

"I've got the rest of the staff beginning to take back control of Torchwood," Pete said.

"Yeah, but then what?" Owen asked.

Owen had finished treating his burns, so the Doctor slipped his jacket back on and put the sonic back into his pocket.

"Then we take down Keeling and the GBF," he answered grimly.

"You're talking about treason," a woman's voice came from the door.

The three men turned to see a UNIT officer at the door.

"Who are you?" Pete asked.

"Captain Marion Price, sent here by General Bambera to find out what was going on with Torchwood." Her eyes widened as she spotted Collins on the floor and she quickly withdrew her weapon.

"Put the gun down, Captain Price," the Doctor said in disgust. "What is with you military types and guns?"

"You want me to put my weapon down when I walk in and the Health Secretary is dead on the floor, Director Tyler has broken out of his jail cell and the three of you are discussing treason?"

"It's not treason to stop an alien invasion, Captain." The Doctor placed his arms under Rose and stood up, cradling her against his chest.

"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded.

"Rose's been hurt, so I'm going to take her to the infirmary," he told her. "You said you're working for General Bambera? General Winifred Bambera?" At Price's nod, he continued. "The general is a reasonable woman, or at least the Brigadier Bambera I knew was. Phone her and see if she wants you to stop us. If she's anything like the one I knew, she won't. And Pete," he said, turning to the other man. "Take away her gun before she hurts herself."

~oOo~

When they arrived in the infirmary, Toshiko and Ianto were in Lisa's room, trying to get as much information as possible about what she remembered about the GBF and their plans, and Martha was adjusting an IV that she had given Jake. Meanwhile Pete and Captain Price were taking turns speaking to the general on Price's mobile.

The Doctor gently laid Rose on a hospital bed near Jake. Once he was certain she was alright, he scanned the younger man and treated the worst of his wounds with his sonic.

"He was given overdoses of both Veratised and perichloridol," he told Martha. "I've temporarily speeded up his liver and kidney functions so he should be able to metabolize both quickly. I've also speeded up the healing of his broken bones. You should be able to handle the rest."

"Thank you," she said in amazement. She gestured at the sonic screwdriver. "Can I take a look at that?"

"Later," he said. "I'm in a bit of a rush."

She nodded. "I'm going to hold you to that, mister," she told him, and he grinned at her.

Toshiko called to him from the doorway of Lisa's room.

"Lisa has remembered more of their plans," she told him, "and she thinks she has a way to stop them once and for all." She outlined everything the other woman had told her, and the Doctor nodded.

"Text me when it's set up," he said. "And you and Ianto keep an eye on her, just in case she's trying to pull something."

"We will," she said. "But I don't think she will. She's very angry at being betrayed."

On the other side of the room, Pete rang off and handed the mobile back to Price.

"Alright, it's all set," he said, crossing over to the Doctor. "Bambera won't stop us. She won't necessarily help us, but she won't stop us. The only problem is that we need to get into Number 10, and dressed like this," he gestured at his work suit and the Doctor's leather jacket and jeans, "neither of us are going to get anywhere near the place."

"Let me let you in on a little secret, Pete," the Doctor said. "If you walk in like you own the place, people will think that you do."

Pete looked skeptical. He opened his mouth to argue, and the Doctor interrupted him.

"It's time to end this," he said grimly. "I'm not waiting another minute longer than I have to. They've hurt Rose twice, and I won't let them do it again. But before we leave, I need to pick up the battery with the Kern from your office, and the alien detector from the archives."

And then he shot Pete a manic grin. "Care to take down a corrupt government with me, Pete?"

Pete smiled back. "I thought you'd never ask."


	38. Chapter 37

Jackie leaned back in the overstuffed recliner that the Doctor's new TARDIS had provided. Next to her, in a matching chair, Gwen was talking on the phone with her husband. On the other side of the room, Tony was sleeping on a TARDIS-provided futon with a coverlet patterned with Disney characters tucked around him.

"No, Rhys," Gwen said into her mobile. "I told you, don't come here. Yeah, I'm safe. The Doctor's got a bit of a…" she looked around the cavernous room, "hiding spot behind the house. Love you too."

She rang off and shoved her mobile in her pocket.

"How long do you think all of this is gonna take?" Jackie asked.

"Until they rescue Pete and sort London?" Gwen chuckled. "I don't know. Could take a while." She suddenly grimaced and rubbed her belly.

Jackie looked at her in concern. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she said through gritted teeth. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not," Jackie said. "How long have you been havin' those pains?"

"Off and on since we got in here," Gwen answered, her voice sounding strained.

"We've been in here for hours," Jackie pointed out. "And how often have you been havin' them?"

"I'm not in labor, Jackie," she said, and then tried to stifle a groan.

Jackie looked at her soberly. "Yes, you are."

~oOo~

On the way to Downing Street, the Doctor and Pete sat in the back of a big black UNIT SUV with Captain Price in front serving as chauffeur. She had insisted on coming, stating that that was one of the conditions the general had placed on them in exchange for her non-interference. Not only would they be able to get through the myriad of checkpoints more easily with an escort, but if they were caught, she could always say that they were in her custody.

Which they were, she had said.

While Owen and Ianto had moved Collin's body to Autopsy, the Doctor had retrieved the battery that held the Kern. He and Pete had then went to the Archives, where the Doctor had hidden the alien detector. To his surprise, he had recognized the security guard securing the entrance. And not from his previous forays into the Archives.

He recognized the young man from his vision of faces while he was searching through Lisa's memories.

Looking nervous, the guard had nevertheless let them through, and the Doctor hid the fact that he recognized him as they walked through the security entrance.

_"He's one of them, Pete," he said softly as they walked into the long aisles of the Archives._

_"Are you sure?" At the look the Doctor gave him, Pete nodded grimly. "Of course you're sure."_

_"Which means your traitor problem in Torchwood is more widespread than we thought," the Doctor told him. "The real question is whether he's been joined as well. I have a feeling the Kern lied to me when they told me how many of them there were."_

_As the Doctor retrieved his alien detector, Pete rang the security chief who had been in the Dungeon with him. By the time they had made it back to the entrance, the young man had been arrested and was on his way to the Dungeon himself._

_"We'll check to see if he's joined later," the Doctor said. "We don't have time now."_

Once they had gotten into the car, the Doctor immediately turned away from Pete in favor of staring out the window at the dark and deserted London streets. Brooding, Pete thought, and realized he had never seen the Doctor brood before. He seemed too energetic, too manic, and frankly too happy with Rose to spend time brooding.

But he was definitely brooding now.

After passing through the third checkpoint, Pete broke the oppressive silence.

"What really happened to Frank?" he asked in a low voice.

"Rose was attacked by the Kern, and she protected herself. Let's just leave it at that," the Doctor answered. "It wasn't her fault. This was my fault, all of it."

Pete began to ask what he meant, but at the forbidding look on the Doctor's face he stopped. The look was full of pain and bitterness and guilt and something he couldn't name.

Something that had caused him to be called by his enemies the Oncoming Storm.

~oOo~

Rose woke up to a massive headache. She opened her eyes, only to immediately shut them again. Even the darkness of the room seemed too bright.

She tried to figure out where she was without looking. There was a quiet beeping next to her head. And her right wrist felt funny. She couldn't rotate it, almost as if it was stabilized, and as she had tried to move it, she could feel a pinprick on the back of her hand. And one of her fingers felt pinched. She reached over with her left hand and could feel tape and tubes on her forearm and more tubes entering her nose. An IV then, and oxygen and the beeping must be a heart monitor. So she was in hospital, or at least in the infirmary at Torchwood. She was hoping for Torchwood. She hated hospitals, always had, and the hatred had only gotten worse since New Earth.

Despite the IV, her throat was sore and her mouth was dry. And the repetitive sound of the monitor was making her head pound in the same rhythm.

"Hurts," she whispered, and she heard someone move to her bedside.

"Rose," a feminine voice said. "How are you feeling?" Without looking, Rose realized it was Martha. That meant Torchwood. Thank God.

"Like crap," she answered. It came out as a croak. She finally opened her eyes, and saw the other woman looking at her in concern. "Where's the Doctor?"

"He and Director Tyler have gone to Number 10."

Rose tried to grin, but she could only manage a small smile which turned into a grimace. "They're sorting it without me?" she asked.

Martha smiled at her. "The Doctor said to tell you that you could help take down the next government."

Now Rose actually did smile. "I'm gonna hold him to that." She glanced down at the IV tubes and the heart rate monitor. "Can I sit up? And can we take off all this stuff?"

Martha began to raise the head of the bed. "Before we do that, let me check your vitals first." She glanced at the monitors. Obviously satisfied with what she saw, she unhooked the monitors, removed the oxygen tube and disconnected the IV.

Rose sat up and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. She stood up and swayed, and Martha caught her.

"You shouldn't get up if you don't have to," she said.

"But I do have to," Rose told her. "I _gotta_ pee."

"That's partially as a result of the IV. You know there is another solution…" Martha smiled wryly.

Rose stared at her for a second, trying to figure out what the doctor had meant, and then the penny dropped.

"There isn't _any_ way I'm using a bed pan. Besides, I'm fine. Really. Bit of a headache, but that's it."

Martha offered to help her, but she refused. She turned and walked out of the room headed to the loo, each step steadier than the last. Behind her, she could feel Martha's eyes watch her. When she returned, to her surprise Martha wasn't there. She found her sitting at her desk, staring thoughtfully into space.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked, sitting in a chair across from her.

"Isn't that my line?" Martha returned with a tiny laugh. "How are you feeling?"

Rose chuckled. " _Much_ better," she said. Her grin faded as the memories of being held captive with the Doctor began to return. "Frank Collins is dead, isn't he?"

Martha looked at her in surprise. "Yes. But I'm not sure what killed him."

"I did," she responded quietly. "I didn't mean to; he was too close…"

"But it looked like some sort of an energy wave."

Rose nodded. "I didn't know I could do that."

"How…"

"'S complicated, and a very long story, Martha," Rose said. The other woman looked at her soberly. "I'll tell you if you want. We've got the time."

Martha shook her head. "I'm not sure I want to know. It's just one more thing I'd have to keep from Tom." She took a deep breath, and the next part came out in a rush. "I'm not sure I can do this, Rose. I mean I love my job, I love working here, but I can't stand not being able to talk to anyone in my family about it. Not even Tom. Keeping secrets is no way to start a marriage."

Rose sat silently for a moment, thinking of all the secrets she and the Doctor had been keeping from each other. And always had.

"You're right. It's no way to start a marriage." _Or any other kind of relationship,_ she added to herself, resolving to talk to the Doctor when this was all over. "I'll see what I can do to fast track Tom into getting the proper security clearances."

Martha's face brightened. "Thank you so much."

"No problem," she answered. "It's the least I can do."

~oOo~

Pete followed the Doctor through the throng of reporters and photographers staked out in front of Number 10. Captain Price was leading the way, not needing to do more than glare at them before they'd part. Or perhaps it was the uniform and the gun, Pete thought. Either way they were managing to get through.

Before they made it to the door, Pete leaned forward to talk directly into the Doctor's ear.

"I still don't know how you plan to get us in," he said in a low voice.

The Doctor just smirked at him and pulled a slim wallet out of his pocket as they approached the door. A quick flash of the contents at the guard and they were in.

Pete stared at him. "What did you show him?"

"Psychic paper," he replied. "He saw what he expected to see." He glanced at it. "Huh. Evidently I'm… the chancellor of the European Alliance. Or something."

They were escorted through a series of hallways to a ballroom on the far side of the building. Inside, senators, congressmen and other political elites were mingling with dignitaries from all over Europe.

"Tell me if you see Keeling," the Doctor said. "Or the president."

"The president?" Pete asked as he surveyed the room.

"Even if he isn't directly involved, there's no way that Keeling could have gotten as far as he has without the cooperation of the president."

They moved further into the room. Pete noticed them receiving odd looks, undoubtedly because of their attire. Although his own light grey suit stood out against the formal suits, gowns and uniforms worn by the other occupants of the room, that was nothing compared to the Doctor's own leather jacket, jeans and trainers. Add to that his messy hair, unshaven face and the faint remains of the burns he had received earlier, and Pete knew that they were going to shortly receive a great deal of unwanted attention no matter what that blank piece of paper appeared to say.

But as it turned out the Doctor was right. He walked in as if he had every right to be there—or actually more right to be there—than the others in the room, and people began to ignore them.

"I still don't see them," Pete said to him.

"There's the general," Captain Price said, and Pete started. He had forgotten that she was behind them.

The Doctor grinned widely. "Yes, she is," he said and began to make his way across the room.

Pete tried to follow but was blocked by a series of waiters carrying trays of champagne flutes and hors d'oeuvres. Instead, he watched as the Doctor briefly spoke to the general and then returned, snagging a handful of something off a tray and tossing it into his mouth.

"This way," he said around a mouthful of food as he passed Pete. He jerked his head towards the door. As he left the room he grabbed a glass of champagne. Pete exchanged glances with Captain Price and shrugged.

Overcome with a sense of déjà vu as they walked down the long corridor to the president's office, Pete had to remind himself that it had only been early that same morning when he had met with the president and been arrested by Keeling. Very eventful day, he thought, but undoubtedly more so for the Doctor. As they approached the door, Pete made a note to himself to ask him about everything the others had gone through since his imprisonment after this was all over. Perhaps over glasses of Scotch.

Assuming they weren't in jail, of course.

After another flash of his wallet at two very confused guards, the Doctor drained his champagne glass and handed it to one of them. He then flung open the double doors to the president's office and swept into the room. Pete and Captain Price followed, the latter turning to close and lock the doors behind them.

President Brian Greene was sitting behind his desk, with what looked like a large set of blueprints laying in front of him. Keeling was leaning over his shoulder, pointing something out. They both looked up sharply when the door opened.

"What's the meaning of this?" the president said in outrage. Next to him, Keeling's eyes narrowed. Greene turned towards him. "I thought Pete Tyler was in custody."

Before Keeling could reply, the Doctor began to wander about the room, gaping at his surroundings.

"This isn't the men's toilet," he said, sounding confused. "If it is, it's pretty posh. I mean, I know this is Number 10, but original oil paintings in the loo? Seems a bit ostentatious to me."

He peered at one on the wall. "Huh. _Pinkie_ by Thomas Lawrence. And _Blue Boy_ by Thomas Gainsborough, isn't it? Personally I'd prefer landscapes in a toilet. Don't like people watching me when I pee, not even if they're in artwork." He pulled a face. "Never know if they're just portraits or something more."

"Who is this man?" the president demanded.

The Doctor turned as if he had just noticed them. "President Greene, isn't it? And Harrison Keeling? I've seen you both on telly. Never thought I'd see you in a loo."

By now used to the Doctor's antics, Pete had to force himself to look serious. Behind him Captain Price unsuccessfully tried to stifle a snicker.

The Doctor walked over to the desk and glanced at the blueprints laying on it. "Huh." He pulled his glasses out of one of his jacket pockets and put them on to examine the plans more closely. "Looks like someone is building some radio telescopes. And big ones, too. If I'm reading this correctly, this one looks like it's over 100 meters across. And that one," he said, pointing to it, "looks like it has broadcast capabilities as well."

A knock on the door startled them all, all except the Doctor.

"Let her in," he said to Price. She turned and let General Bambera into the room, relocking the doors behind her.

"Am I late?" Bambera asked.

"No, General, you're just in time," the Doctor said.

"This is the man I told you about," Keeling said to Greene. "He goes by the name John Smith, but he's really an alien known as the Doctor."

The Doctor got a puzzled look on his face. "Wait a minute. Are you calling me an alien?" He turned back to the president. "Do I look like an alien to you?"

"Looks can be deceiving," Keeling said, "Mr. President, despite what he looks like, he is an alien, and I can prove it. Just have him take a DNA test."

Pete shot a look at the Doctor. To his surprise, he didn't look worried. Instead, he pulled a wallet out of his pocket, one that was different than the one containing the psychic paper.

"That won't be necessary," he said. "I've already taken one. Administered by your government, in fact." He removed a small piece of plastic from the wallet and tossed it to the president, who instinctively caught it. "That's the new ID you are making everyone get. Completely impossible to fake. See that picture on it? That's me, right there. It's not a particularly good picture—well they never are, are they—but you can tell it’s me. And my fingerprint is there too, along with the encoded trace of my DNA. Completely human DNA."

"This is made out in the name of Roger Carter," the president said.

The Doctor shrugged. "That's me."

"I thought your name was John Smith."

"All Torchwood agents have aliases they go by," Pete interjected. "John Smith is his, codename 'The Doctor'."

"But who I am is unimportant," the Doctor said. He nodded at Keeling, his grin fading. "Who, or what, he is _is_."

"Don't listen to him," Keeling said angrily. "He's dangerous."

"Am I?" the Doctor asked in mock surprise. "You know, you're the second person to say that to me today. If one more person says it, it must be true. Three times the charm, and all that."

He plopped himself down in a chair across from the president and swung his trainer-clad feet onto the desk. "You know, the DNA testing, the curfews, the possible labor camps… I understand why he might have wanted all of it," he said, gesturing at Keeling. "But what I don't get is this. Why did you go along with all of it?"

"We're at risk of an alien invasion!" Greene told him. "I am doing what I can to prevent it!"

"Who told you that?" Pete asked. And then he looked at Keeling. His eyes narrowed at the smug look on the other man's face. "Mr. President, you've been listening to rumors. Rumors that I'm guessing have been spread by Keeling and the GBF."

"They aren't rumors," Keeling said coldly. "The invasion's already started. And he's at the center of it. I don't know how he faked that card, but no matter what it says, he's an alien." He turned to the president. "And Pete Tyler's in league with him."

"You know, he's right about a couple of things," the Doctor continued, gesturing at Keeling. "Looks _can_ be deceiving. And we _are_ at risk of an alien invasion. Our friend Harrison here, he's not an alien. Not physically, at any rate. But mentally—he's been taken over by an alien called the Kern. And he's gotten close to you in order to further his plans. Those blueprints in front of you? It's not just a telescope; it's a beacon. And that beacon is designed to attract more of its kind. And all that DNA testing? It was to look for suitable candidates to take over."

"That's ridiculous," Keeling blustered. "Mr. President, don't listen to him."

The Doctor stood up and reached into his pocket only to pull out the battery he had retrieved from Pete's office. He tossed it into the air and neatly caught it in one hand. Then he repeated the motion. The battery went up and down. Up and down. Up and down.

Keeling's eyes followed it as it rose and fell.

"I bet I know what you're thinking," the Doctor said, directing his comments at Keeling. "You're wondering if this is the battery you had your man leave in Pete Tyler's house during that break-in that you arranged. Or," he paused dramatically, "whether this one is the one that you left with Frank Collins."

"Doctor, as the head of the NIH, Frank was supposed to be here tonight," Pete said.

The Doctor caught the battery and turned to stare at him. "Really? Now that is interesting. Frank was coming here, with the battery no doubt. But why?" His eyes widened and he turned back to Keeling. "You needed more hosts, and what better place to look than among the world's leaders. If you had them with you, you could invade without a single protest."

"What are you talking about?" Greene demanded. No one paid any attention to him.

"But how would they know which of the leaders would be, you know…" Pete asked.

"Suitable for joining?" the Doctor supplied.

Pete nodded.

"Joining increases a Kern's telepathic power," the Doctor told him. "Keeling here could tell who was and who wasn't just by wandering through the ballroom. Then, what, they get invited back here for an exclusive meeting with the president? But they would have gotten more than they bargained for, wouldn't they, Keeling?"

The president looked sharply at his adviser. "You said you were going to invite people to the meeting who would be receptive to joining with us in the observatory, so that it would be an international effort."

Keeling stared at the Doctor, who had begun to toss the battery up and down again.

"I wonder what you'd do to get this back," the Doctor said.

Pete looked at him sharply.

"Would you… give up your post as head of UNIT? Would you… give up your plans for the beacon?"

Mesmerized by the sight of the battery being tossed in the air, Keeling didn't answer.

"Would you… admit you are one of the Kern?"

"Yes," Keeling whispered.

"Sorry, couldn't quite hear that," the Doctor said. "Must have a bit of earwax." He stuck a finger in his left ear as if to clean it out, all the while still tossing the battery up and down without missing a beat. "Can you speak a little louder?"

"Yes," Keeling said.

"Yes what? Yes, you can speak louder? Yes to your resignation? Yes to giving up the beacon?" The Doctor caught the battery and held it between two fingers. "Or yes, that you admit you're one of the Kern?"

"Yes, yes, YES! Yes to all of it!"

Greene, Bambera and Price all stared at him in shock.

"Wait, is he saying he really _is_ an alien?" Greene asked.

"Yes, I am one of the Kern!" he yelled. "Now just give it to me!" He thrust his hand out to the Doctor.

The Doctor grinned smugly. "Here. Catch." And he tossed it to Keeling.

Pete gaped at him. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

The Doctor ignored him. His smile faded as he watched Keeling, who was staring at the battery in his hand.

"This isn't the right one. You tricked me."

"No, it is the right one."

"But it's… empty. They're all gone." He looked up at the Doctor, fury written all over his face. _"What did you do?"_

The Doctor looked at him somberly. "I'm sorry. There was an accident. An energy wave."

"They're all dead?" In shock, he sank down into a chair near the president's desk. "I just wanted to find us a new home."

"I am so, so sorry," the Doctor said quietly. "But you can't have this world."

Pete exchanged glances with the general, who nodded.

"Captain Price," she said, "please take Director Keeling into custody."

Price left her post at the door and cautiously approached Keeling, who was sitting quietly on the chair, the battery clasped tightly in his hand.

"Director, would you come with me please?" she asked.

He nodded absently and stood. She led him towards the door. He stopped when he passed the Doctor.

"Our home, our entire planet is gone. I only wanted a new home for my people. You know that, don't you?"

The captain tugged gently on his arm, and he turned and followed her, stumbling slightly as he left the room.

Bambera began to close the door behind them but stopped when the Doctor cleared his throat.

"General, would you excuse us for just a moment please?" he asked.

Brow furrowed, she again exchanged glances with Pete, who shrugged and looked apologetic. She nodded and left the office, closing the door behind her.

"Mr. President," Pete began, "after all that has happened, I believe the country needs new leadership."

"You need to resign," the Doctor said flatly.

Incredulous, Greene stared at them. "You can't be serious."

"You instituted draconian measures to stop an imaginary invasion, all the while aiding the aliens who were planning to invade!" The Doctor's eyes flashed. "You need to go, and you need to go now."

"You can't prove any of this," the president replied. "And I refuse."

"Then I'll just have to make sure you leave," the Doctor said.

"You can't take me down," Greene said.

"Oh, you'd be surprised at what I can do," he said coldly. His mobile beeped and he pulled it out of his pocket. When he read the text, he slowly began to grin. "You see, I have a couple of friends who are very good with computers, and if you knew me you'd know that is very high praise indeed. And while we've been here, they've been working on a little project for me. They've been able to produce some documents, photos, even some video clips that would prove that you were working with John Lumic in the production of the Cybermen."

"No one will believe it," Greene said.

"Oh, I think they will," he said. He sat back down across the desk from the president. "Have you ever noticed how powerful the social media has become in this world? You have My Face, Facepage, Linked Together, even one called twist'd…. And then there is one that might be my favorite. It's called flutter. Not sure why they call it that, maybe because the comments flit like butterflies from one person to all his or her followers. You put one comment, or a series of comments, or perhaps a photo or a clip of video on any one of them, and within seconds it can reach hundreds of thousands of people. Within minutes it can be all over the globe.

"But actually, my friends have gone further than that," he continued. "The thing with computer files is that essentially they are date stamped. They're encoded with the date and time they were created. But my friends—did I mention how good they are? They are very, _very_ good, almost up to my standards actually, and they were also able to electronically age the photos and video clips, re-encode the date stamps, so that they appear to have been taken a decade ago.

"Pete," the Doctor continued without looking away from the president, "isn't it against the law to hold an office in government if you were working with Lumic?"

Greene blanched.

"Yes," Pete answered. "Punishable by thirty years in a federal penitentiary without possibility of parole."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Ooh, thirty years? Someone your age, Mr. President, would be, what, ninety when you were released?"

"Ninety-three," Pete supplied.

"Ninety-three?" The Doctor grimaced. "Of course, that's assuming you survived that long. Or," he said thoughtfully, "you could go away. Far, far away." He exchanged glances with Pete. "I understand Bangladesh is very nice."

The Doctor got out of his chair and headed towards the door, and then stopped and turned back.

"Oh, and one last thing. These files, the documents, the photos, the video, they are hidden all over the world. And they'll stay hidden—as long as you don't ever speak publicly again. No speeches, no interviews, I don't want to hear that you've even given a toast at a wedding reception. One word and I'll make sure they'll be released everywhere."

The Doctor continued to the door and invited General Bambera to re-enter.

"I believe the president has an announcement to make," Pete told her.

She looked curiously at him.

"General Bambera," President Greene said, "it is my intention to resign as President of Great Britain, effective immediately. Please have the vice-president and the chief justice of the Supreme Court join us."

The Doctor couldn't see even a flicker of surprise cross the general's face, and at that moment he resolved to never play poker with her.

Bambera nodded at Greene and walked back to the door. She called to the guards.

"Ask Chief Justice Williams and Vice-President Frobisher to join us, please," she instructed. "And make certain none of the other guests are disturbed."

Minutes later, after witnessing Brian Greene resign and John Frobisher sworn in as president, the Doctor and Pete turned to leave.

"We're still going to have to figure out who else may have been joined," the Doctor said. He stopped in the doorway. "I forgot. We need to get those blueprints."

"I'll get them," Pete volunteered. He retrieved them from the president's desk and followed the Doctor out the door. "You know, Doctor, a proposal like this wouldn't have been made to the president by the head of UNIT alone. It would have had to have been sponsored by the member of Congress where the observatory was going to go."

"Does it say who sponsored it?" the Doctor asked.

Pete stopped and unrolled the blueprints. "It doesn't say, but it does say where it was to be located. Fifteen miles due east of Swansea."

"Oh, I just bet I know who sponsored it," the Doctor said.

"Who?"

"Congresswoman Margaret Blaine. She was opposed to the president's policies and then after one meeting, she changed her mind. What do you bet either Collins or Keeling were at that meeting, too?"

"I saw her in the ballroom when we first got here," Pete said. "She's probably still here." As he looked back down at the blueprints, he didn't notice the Doctor rush back down the hall towards the ballroom. "Kind of a funny name for an observatory. Blaidd Drwg. Wonder what it means."

He looked up and saw that the Doctor was gone. Shrugging, he rolled the blueprints back up, tucked them under his arm and followed the Doctor to the ballroom.


	39. Chapter 38

All successful entrepreneurs are storytellers. Either through necessity, innate ability or perhaps a little bit of both, they must become experts at communicating a vision of their products to their potential investors and customers if they want their businesses to survive.

As it turned out, Pete Tyler was particularly gifted at storytelling. And the same talent that had earned him millions selling Vitex was currently at work weaving the tale of his adventures with the Doctor at Number 10.

Due to the efforts of Owen and Martha, and more than a little help from the Doctor and his sonic, Jake was doing much better, so they were all seated around his bed in the Torchwood infirmary. So she'd be better able to monitor Jake's vitals without disturbing anyone, Martha sat at the head of the bed. Pete was opposite her and the members of the Cardiff branch were spread out along either side. Lisa was there too, sitting next to Ianto and clutching his hand tightly. At first she had been hesitant to join them, nervous about the reception she'd receive now that she remembered many of the things she had done both before she had been joined with the Kern and afterwards. Pete, however, had insisted. He was taking her computer work with Tosh, the same work that had effectively ended Brian Greene's presidency, as an indication that she wanted to make up for her role in the Kern mess, and he was willing to allow her greater freedom because of it.

Rose sat at the foot of the bed with an empty chair for the Doctor sitting next to hers. When he and Pete had gotten back to Torchwood Four, he had scanned her several times with his sonic as if to assure himself she truly was okay and not suffering any aftereffects of the Kern attack or the drug Collins had given her. Once he was certain she was alright, he then had taken off for other parts of the facility to tie up loose ends and had insisted that she remain in the infirmary until he returned. She had reluctantly agreed, if only because she hadn't wanted to argue with him in front of everyone else.

"So after Frobisher was sworn in," Pete said, "the Doctor figured out Margaret Blaine was one of them too, and he took off down the hall to look for her. I tried to catch up with him, but he was way too quick for me and I lost track of him. I looked all over and finally found him in the ballroom. There he was, his alien detector in his hand, scanning everyone in the place. Now just picture it, here we are at a formal reception for the heads of state of the European Alliance, everyone decked out in their finest, and here he is, wandering around in his black leather jacket and jeans waving this squealing, blinking box at people..."

_"This way, Pete," the Doctor yelled over the noise of the party. He led the way through the crush and out of the room._

_Once out in the hall he stopped short, and Pete, who had been struggling to keep up, plowed right into him. The Doctor didn't seem to notice. He was busy scanning the area with the alien detector, staring at the pattern of flashing lights on his display._

_He abruptly turned left and started down the hall, then turned down several corridors and through a wide door which they immediately discovered was the entrance to the kitchen._

_The Doctor shook his head._

_"Such a cliché," the Doctor said over the voices of chefs and waiters, the hum of the burners on the wide cookers, and the sounds of clanking pots and pans. "Of course she would have gone through the kitchen."_

_He wound his way through the crowded, narrow room to a door on the far end which Pete thought undoubtedly led outside._

_But it didn't. Instead it led to a large pantry. After a moment, they found the congresswoman crouching in the corner, trying to hide behind a shelf containing bags of assorted types of flour and rice._

_As they approached her, the Doctor's mobile began to ring._

_He tried to ignore it, but the ringing continued._

_"This is why I don't want a mobile!" he exclaimed._

_With a huff of exasperation, he pulled it out of his pocket._

_"Hello," he said._

_A woman's shrill voice came over the receiver._

_"Aren't you done savin' the world yet?"_

_The Doctor rolled his eyes and handed the phone to Pete. "It's for you," he said._

In the infirmary, the others burst out laughing.

"Turns out UNIT troops had shown up at the Doctor and Rose's house, Jackie, Tony and Gwen had hidden in the woods in the Doctor's new TARDIS, and Gwen was in labor. We tracked down General Bambera, and she told us that she had already had UNIT withdraw. After I told Jacks that, she rang off. I don't know what happened after that."

"I got a call from Mum a little bit ago," Rose said. "She ran back and got the SUV, and then she and Tony took Gwen to A & E. Rhys met them there right after that, but as far as I know she hasn't had the baby yet."

"Incredible," Jake said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I'm kidnapped for one day, and I miss out on all the fun." He paused a moment. "By the way, Rose, I've been meaning to ask you, what's with the hair?"

Her hand flew up to touch it. "Oh, I had forgotten about that," she said. "We were trying to sneak across the border, and I needed to look different."

"So it was for a disguise?" he asked. "Huh. And here I just figured ginger hair was one of the Doctor's kinks."

As everyone laughed, Rose winked at him. "I didn't say it wasn't."

As she was speaking the Doctor walked in, and at seeing him everyone laughed harder.

He sat down in the empty chair next to Rose and gave her a puzzled look. He leaned towards her and whispered in her ear.

"I think I missed the joke."

She took his hand and squeezed it. "Tell you later," she promised.

"Getting back to Jackie," Pete said. "She and Tony are going to stay in Cardiff for a bit. Oh, they won't be staying with the two of you," he added at the stricken look on the Doctor's face. "I'll have them stay at the flat you two were living in when you first got there. When the UNIT troops searched the mansion, they left a bit of a mess. Curtains were ripped, furniture was broken, parts of the walls and ceilings were ripped out in some of the rooms… I don't want Jacks and Tony to see it like that. I'll have them come back once the repairs are finished. I'll have to stay here to get Torchwood back into shape and supervise the repairs. And deal with the rest of this mess with the Kern."

"I managed to get the Kern out of Harrison, Margaret and the guard from the archives," the Doctor said when he was finished.

"Are they alright?" Lisa asked quietly.

The Doctor shook his head. "No," he said. "Telepathically, they weren't as strong as you are. Joining crushed them mentally, and they'll need to be in a care facility, possibly for the rest of their lives."

"We moved Sean Callahan to one a few weeks ago," Pete told him. "We'll put them in the same one."

"We'll also have to locate everyone else that was joined," the Doctor said, addressing Lisa. "The unbonded Kern told me that seven of them had died, but they lied to me. We need to account for every single one, otherwise this could happen all over again."

"I'm remembering more and more," Lisa said. "There were only twenty-four to begin with. And I know the names of a couple of others who were with the GBF who Harrison had mentioned he wanted to be hosts."

"There were nineteen in the battery when I was attacked," Rose interjected.

The Doctor looked sharply at her, an expression that was quickly replaced with worry for her. "Are you certain? Are you absolutely certain there were nineteen?"

She nodded. "I could hear them all individually in my mind. There were nineteen."

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "That should be all of them then. Nineteen plus the one in the computer that died and the ones in Collins, Keeling, Margaret and the guard from Archives. I don't know what his name is."

Rose could tell it was bothering him that he didn't know the guard's name.

"Phil," she told him, rubbing her thumb across the back of his in a comforting manner. "His name is Phil Peterson."

"So John Frobisher is president now," Jake said after a moment, interrupting the somber mood.

"Yeah." Pete chuckled. "Who would have thought? Greene had only chosen him because he knew he would be a pushover and not stand up to him on policy making. No one ever expected him to be president. But he probably won't be president long. Since Greene's election was so recent, there are a lot of members of Congress clamoring for a new election. If they get it, Harriet Jones will be a shoe in. No one will vote for anyone associated with the Greene administration, not after everything that has happened. Although I have to say one thing for Frobisher. One of the first things he did was lift the curfews and shut down the checkpoints. He also rescinded the warrants out on all of us."

"Thank God someone thought to do that," Owen said. Rose noticed he was sitting suspiciously close to Toshiko, and for once had gone several hours without making a crude or insulting remark. Perhaps their earlier flirting had affected him, she thought.

"Maybe the country will get back to normal soon," Ianto said.

Owen snorted. "Let's hope it gets better than that."

The sound of Toshiko's phone chiming interrupted him. She pulled it out of her pocket and read the text. "It's from Rhys," she said. "Gwen had her baby. It's a little girl. They're naming her Anwen."

Rose half expected the Doctor to jump in and say something about the etymology of the name, followed perhaps by a short, or long, lecture on famous Anwens in history, but he didn't. Instead he sat back and listened as the others began to share their own experiences of the past weeks, an unreadable expression on his face, and Rose resolved again to talk to him once they got back home.

Jake turned and faced Martha, who had begun checking his vitals again. "So, Doc, when do you think I'll be able to get out of this bed and get back to Glasgow?"

"Torchwood Two blew up, Jake," Pete said before she could reply.

Jake stared at him in shock.

"In fact," Rose said, "for a while we thought you were caught in the explosion. They discovered a body and we thought it was yours."

"It wasn't Audrey, was it?" Jake worried.

"Audrey was the one who told the police it might be you," Ianto said. "But since it wasn't, we don't know who it was."

Jake anxiously ran a hand through his short-cropped hair. "Oh, God, I hope it wasn't Martin."

"Who's Martin?" Rose asked.

"Martin Douglas, the only other staff member up there," Jake said. "I sent him out to check on some suspicious lights, what, couple of days ago? He shouldn't have been back yet, but maybe he got back early." He slammed fist onto the bed. "Damn!"

"This is all my fault," Lisa said hollowly. "If I hadn't linked with the Kern first, none of this would have happened. So many people have died, and it's all my fault."

"No one blames you," Ianto said.

"If they don't, they should," she told him. "I cooperated with them. I helped them. And I hurt you, Rose," she continued, turning towards her. "And I'm so sorry."

"When you agreed to join them, you made a mistake," Rose said. "A big one. But I felt what it was like to have the Kern inside my head. You wouldn't have been able to say no, not even if you wanted to. In fact, you were lucky to have survived."

"Lisa, listen to me," the Doctor said quietly but firmly, in a tone that broached no argument. "This wasn't your fault. In a way it wasn't even the Kern's. They had lost their planet, and they were just trying to do what they could to survive. They were acting on instinct; they didn't understand that they couldn't form a real joining with humans without crushing them, that they really couldn't survive here."

"And if they hadn't lost their planet, they wouldn't even have come here," Rose added.

And as the others fell silent, thinking about all the people who had lost their lives, the Doctor sat back and crossed his arms in front of his chest, a haunted expression on his face.

~oOo~

Pete made arrangements for a car and driver to bring them home. He had made the same offer to the others, but Ianto had elected to stay behind with Lisa while she made the transition back to a normal life. Owen, to everyone's shock, had offered to drive Ianto's sister's minivan back to her and, what was less of a surprise, Toshiko had decided to go with him.

Rose's stepfather had insisted they all leave the mop up of the rest of the Kern situation with him, including rounding up the rest of the members of the GBF and finding the people who had kidnapped Jake. Since all the Kern had been accounted for, the Doctor had readily agreed, wanting Rose to be home as soon as possible. Rose hadn't objected either, being too tired to muster a protest.

They arrived at the farmhouse just as the sun was rising. Despite having slept in the car, they were still exhausted when they arrived. Once in the house, they immediately climbed the stairs to their bedroom, barely noticing that the damage that had occurred at the mansion hadn't happened in their own home. 

They fell into bed, only taking the time to strip down to their t-shirts and underpants. Rose hadn't even bothered to remove her tee in order to take off her bra, instead taking it off a way most girls quickly learn how to do once they begin wearing them, by unfastening it under her shirt and working it off through her sleeves. It was a testament to how tired the Doctor was that he didn't even object to not being able to see her without her top.

Hours later, Rose awoke to find the Doctor gone and his side of the bed cold. She twisted to look at the clock on her bedside table. Half nine. Only a little over four hours since they had gotten home.

It distantly occurred to her that with Ianto gone again and Gwen in hospital with a new baby, Torchwood Three was down to three staff members, and Owen and Toshiko were probably not even back from London yet. She ought to head in to work.

But no. Just… no. Cardiff could just sod off for a couple of days.

She rolled over to lay on her back, wondering if she should try to get back to sleep. But the Doctor was already up, and she was wide awake. Might as well get up herself even if she wasn't going in to work.

When she got out of bed and walked to the en suite, she noticed how stiff her muscles were. Undoubtedly because of sleeping in a car for hours. And probably because of landing on the floor after protecting herself from the Kern attack.

She took a long, hot shower to clean up and loosen her muscles, trying not to think of the sight of Frank Collins lying dead on the floor. He hadn't been the first person she had killed, and as part of Torchwood undoubtedly wouldn't be the last, but she had known him. He had been a friend of the family. But he had been joined, and the Doctor had implied that Frank was all but dead when they had been tied up.

But still. He was dead. And she had killed him.

Later, clean and dressed, she headed downstairs. The house was quiet. A note from her mother lay on the center of the kitchen table.

_Took Tony into town to do some shopping and get settled in the flat._

_Don't forget—you need to do some shopping, too. You don't have any food in the house._

_Ring me when you read this._

She snorted. Like that was going to happen. It took forever to get her mother off the phone. She'd talk to her later.

She made some tea and filled up two mugs. Then she went in search of the Doctor. She didn't have to look long. He was sitting on the back stoop, back hunched over, elbows on knees, chin resting on his hands. He had showered and shaved and changed into his blue suit from the TARDIS, his default when something was bothering him. As she handed him one of the mugs and sat down beside him, she noticed he had circles under his eyes, and she wondered just how much he had actually slept.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, sipping their tea.

"We need to go over to the Hub," he said eventually, breaking the silence.

"Why?" she asked. Now that the mystery was solved and the problems in the country had been sorted for the time being, she realized she had really been hoping for a little down time with him today.

"I want to examine you again."

"You did that last night," she protested.

He put down his mug and turned to face her.

"Rose, you almost died last night," he said soberly. "You collapsed. Your heartbeat was erratic and you had stopped breathing. That alone is enough of a reason to examine you, but you were able to use the artron energy in your system to ward off a Kern attack. Somehow your body learned how to control it. And recently, because you weren't able to do that when I first got here. I need to figure out how and why, and Owen's got some specialized equipment in the Hub that Torchwood Four doesn't have and that I don't have here."

"You don't need to examine me for that," she said.

"Yes I do," he insisted. "Not only that, when I scanned you last night, your artron level was extremely low. You have no idea how dangerous that is for you. Your body has developed a dependence on the artron, and such a huge drop all at once could be dangerous for you. You're alright now, but if it happened again before your body adjusted to the new level, it could kill you."

Her conversation with Martha crossed her mind. She hadn't intended to talk to him about this quite yet, unexpectedly and before breakfast, but now was as good a time as any she supposed. She took a deep breath.

"I'll be fine," she said. "I know how to control it. I taught myself how."

"You did?" he asked in disbelief. "How? Why?"

"By giving it to the TARDIS," she said.

He stared at her for a moment, puzzled, and then his jaw dropped as what she said registered.

"You did what?" he demanded.

"I gave it to the TARDIS," she said again. At the look of shock on his face, she continued. "I know you told me not to, but I wanted her to grow faster. She responded so well the first time I gave her energy that I decided to keep on doing it."

"Rose," he sputtered, "I can't believe you did that! That was so stupid! I told you it was a risk. Are you so anxious to travel again that you would put your life at risk?"

"No," she said calmly. "But I didn't do it for me. I did it for you."

"What?"

"I did it so you could travel sooner," she explained. "There's been something wrong for weeks, and I know how hard being grounded has been for you. I was very careful not to let her take too much at any one time, and I got good at being able to control it. If we hadn't had to face the Kern, I would have been fine. "

Running his hands through his hair, he stared at her in horror.

"You risked your _life_ so that I could travel sooner?"

"Yes," she said simply.

"Oh, Rose," he said, shaking his head. "I am not worth risking your life for, and particularly not like this." He dragged his hands over his face. "You've done this time and again, so many times I've lost count. And that's not even including when you used the dimension cannon. I am not worth it."

"Yes, you are."

He scoffed. "If you only knew…. If you had any idea…." He rested his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Rose, this business with the Kern, it was my fault," he told her. "If they hadn't come here, no one would have died."

"Doctor, we talked about this last night with Lisa," Rose said. "They wouldn't have come if they hadn't lost their planet."

"And that's why it's my fault," he said. "They wouldn't have lost their planet if it weren't for me."


	40. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that this chapter has been slightly edited to comply with canon established in the episode Day of the Doctor.

_And that's why it's my fault. They wouldn't have lost their planet if it weren't for me._

"Wha… what?" Rose started.

"All of this, the Kern losing their planet, all the people they took over, all the people they killed… Rose, you almost died when you were attacked, and it was _my fault_!"

Rose didn't doubt that the man who burned up a sun for her had the ability to destroy a planet, but she couldn't understand how he could possibly be responsible in this case, and she told him so.

"You've only been here a couple of months, and the Kern have been here at least six. And who knows how long before that their planet was destroyed."

Instead of answering he stood, grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She barely had a chance to set down her mug before he began to pull her down the short path to his workshop.

The low, long barn was dark compared to the bright summer morning outside, but just as Rose's eyes began to adjust to the light, the Doctor flipped a switch near the door. Heavy blinds descended, covering the windows and plunging the room into almost total darkness.

The Doctor let go of her hand, and she heard him cross the room. For a second or two, the computer monitor lit up as he typed rapidly into the computer. Then the screen went dark.

Suddenly the room was filled with stars.

She walked from the doorway to the center of the room, marveling at the holographic map that now surrounded her. It was as if she stood at the center of the universe. Around her floated galaxies slowly spinning on their axes and the bright glow of quasars in the distance. At the same time, the entire map slowly rotated around her.

"This is incredible," she breathed. Then she turned to him. "But I don't understand."

The Doctor crossed the room, the golden glow of an elliptical galaxy illuminating his face. He stepped through it to stand next to her.

"Did you know that the state of astronomy on this planet is abysmal?" he asked. "They had some stars listed as galaxies, and a few galaxies and quasars listed as stars. There were stars listed in the wrong place or at the wrong distance. Someone had even listed a brown dwarf as a red giant."

Rose stared at him, puzzled. "What on Earth are you talking about?"

"The missing stars."

He pointed at a galaxy above them. Instantly it zoomed closer, not coming to a stop until it surrounded them. He then pointed to a spot that looked suspiciously empty compared to the rest of the galaxy.

She stared at him blankly for a moment, and then suddenly it hit her. "The missing stars?" she asked.

"Yes, the stars that were still missing after we stopped the Reality Bomb."

"You figured it out? What caused it?"

He nodded. "I thought that they looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out why. Once I realized the star charts were wrong and corrected the errors, the answer became obvious."

"And?"

"In the center of the missing stars, there had been an explosion, an explosion unlike anything anyone had ever seen. A massive, _massive_ explosion that set off a chain reaction that sent a shockwave throughout the galaxy so large that it caused the total destruction of hundreds of nearby stars, and the sudden deaths of countless others before it dissipated. With every star that was destroyed, the planets surrounding them died, and all life on them died as well."

"What caused that?" she asked in shock.

He walked back to the computer and tapped a key and the holographic star map disappeared. Then he crossed the room and raised the curtains again.

"The explosion of a black hole," he said. "Or, more specifically, the explosion of a singularity in the center of a collapsing star that was in the process of becoming a black hole." He paused for a moment, as if steeling himself up for something difficult, before he continued. "The center of the explosion was at galactic co-ordinates 10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2 from Galactic Zero Center, in the constellation of Kasterborous. The star in question was called the Eye of Harmony and was in the center of one of the most beautiful planets in the universe."

Rose stared at him with a sinking feeling. "Doctor," she said quietly. "What was the planet called?"

He didn't answer immediately, and when he did, it was only with great difficulty. "It was sometimes called the Shining World of the Seven Systems. Snowcapped mountains towered over wide plains of scarlet grass. The slow, wide river Lethe wound its way through enormous forests of trees with leaves of silver to empty into the Sea of Harmony. When the second sun rose in the south the forests looked like they were on fire, and at suns set, the sea would look like molten gold. When it was destroyed, one of the wonders of the universe was snuffed out forever."

"Doctor, which planet was it?" She was afraid to hear the answer because she suspected she knew what it was. "What was its name?"

"Gallifrey," he whispered so quietly she could hardly hear him.

"Gallifrey?" She took a deep breath. "I don't understand. The parallel version of Gallifrey exploded, too? There were Time Lords here, too? Did the Time War happen here as well?"

The Doctor shook his head. "The Time Lords only existed in one universe, Rose. There were other versions of Gallifrey in other universes, although none of them were called that, and some of those worlds were even populated, but we were the only Time Lords. And the Eye of Harmony only existed in our universe."

"I knew it was a possibility, that there was a very, very slim chance that the explosion of the Eye would turn it not into a black hole, but a wormhole, leading from one place to another, but mathematically the risk was _so small_ , and even if it happened I believed the Time Lock would stop it. It stopped the explosion from spreading to the rest of our universe, but for a second, in the second it took between blowing up the Eye and Time Locking it, some of the energy broke through into another dimension. This dimension."

His face screwed up with emotion. "The explosion of this planet was caused by the destruction of Gallifrey in _our_ universe. The explosion of the Eye was so powerful it caused a temporary rupture between the two universes. I did this. I caused it. I caused the crack between the universes that we fell through the first time we came to Pete's World. I caused the weakness between the universes that Torchwood exploited and made you get trapped here. I caused the stars to go out, the planets to be destroyed, the people to be killed. I caused the entanglement between the universes. _I did this._ In one fell swoop, I caused devastation and death in two separate universes."

Rose flashed back in her mind to her time traveling with her first Doctor. Piece by piece, bit by bit, with a sentence here and a sentence there he had told her a little about the war and his role in ending it.

"All those deaths… All those people," he said numbly. "I killed them just as surely as if I had held a gun to their heads and pulled the trigger."

"You did what you had to do," she said to him firmly. "You had no choice."

"There is always a choice," he answered. "It's just that sometimes all the choices are bad ones."

He began to pace the room with such speed and energy it looked as if he were trying to literally run away from his past while still remaining in the small space.

"He was right. I _am_ dangerous," he said, and Rose realized he was talking about the full Time Lord Doctor. "I didn't want to believe it, but he was right. When Collins was threatening you, when he tried to get you join without caring if it would kill you…"

"You did not kill him, Doctor!" she practically shouted. "I did!"

He stopped in his tracks and turned to her, wide-eyed. "I hoped…"

"You hoped I didn't know, yeah?" she asked. "But I did. I didn't mean to kill them. I just meant to force them out of my mind, but there were so many of them… I had to use so much energy to do it that it killed Frank. Killed all of them. _I_ did it, not you."

He shook his head. "You should never have been in that position to begin with. When I saw you strapped down in that chair… I was so angry I wanted to kill him. In fact I might have killed him if I hadn't been strapped down myself. And then when I realized he was dead… for a moment I didn't care. No, for a moment I was even glad he was dead." He shook his head. "Oh, Rose, you are living with a monster."

"Doctor, you are not a monster," she told him firmly. "Those feelings are normal. You are a good man, the best man I've ever met."

He drew in a ragged breath. "You really don't understand."

"Then make me understand," she pleaded.

"The problem isn't that I caused it." His voice broke as the words tore from him. "The problem is that despite the fact that you almost died, despite all the deaths, despite the destruction of countless planets in _two separate universes_ , despite _everything_... I would do it again."

For a moment they stared at one another as his words seemed to echo in the room. Then Rose swiftly crossed the short distance between them to tightly wrap him in her arms. She felt his whole body shake with the long repressed emotion, and she held him as the long buried grief and guilt over his role in the Time War rose to the surface. Slowly she felt the tremors that wracked his body come to a stop. Letting go of him for a moment, she took his face in her hands, pulled his head down and kissed him.

He stiffened, and Rose could sense the Time Lord in him warring with his newfound humanness. She knew the Time Lord part of him wanted to run, to escape the overwhelming guilt he felt, and she was afraid he'd push her away.

He pulled away just far enough to meet her eyes, pain and guilt and the conflict between staying and running written all over his face. For a moment she was certain he was going to bolt. But then he pulled her roughly back into his arms and crashed their lips together.

By now he had kissed her countless times, slowly and lovingly or full of passion and desire, but this time was hard, needy, and full of longing and fear and as if he were craving absolution. He quickly moved from her mouth to her jaw and throat, nipping and sucking a line down to her collarbone, all the while whispering things against her skin that she couldn't understand. She dropped her head back with a sigh of pleasure, and he drew a ragged breath and rested his forehead against hers.

"Please, Rose," he begged, "I need you. I need you so much."

"You have me," she promised. "Always."

At her words, he yanked her t-shirt up and off so roughly that she was convinced it would have ripped had it been a regular blouse. With a practiced hand he unclasped her bra, removed it and dropped it to the floor. He then bent down to kiss and suckle her breasts while at the same time unbuttoning and unzipping her jeans.

He had always been passionate when they made love, but at that moment she realized she had never seen him this out of control before. Ever. In or out of the bedroom. The only time that had come close was when he had held a gun on her when she had stood between him and a Dalek.

This time it wasn't about arousal or desire, it was about needing to feel a connection to someone, to her, to embrace life after experiencing so much death. It was a profoundly human response, one she doubted Time Lords shared, and it struck her how human he had become over the past weeks. Knowing how much he needed this, this completely human connection, Rose pulled him upward and started pushing off his jacket. In response, he pressed his mouth to hers again in a frantic, almost painful clash of lips and teeth and tongues. When he stopped to yank off his shirt, she toed off her shoes and shimmied out of her jeans and knickers. When she was done he kissed her again, pushing her backwards until her back practically slammed into the wall behind her.

Without removing his mouth from hers, he unfastened his own trousers and shoved them and his pants down, not bothering to completely remove them. Cupping her arse, he lifted her up and she immediately wrapped her legs around his waist. He reached between them, lined himself up with her opening and plunged himself deeply into her.

She hadn't been quite ready for him, and she sharply inhaled at the sudden feeling of fullness. Coming back to himself for a moment, he paused to let herself adjust to him and again rested his forehead on hers.

_I don't deserve you, Rose. Please, please don't leave me._

For a moment Rose thought he had said it aloud but then realized he hadn't. The words had echoed straight to her mind, bypassing her ears, and she wondered if he knew he was projecting his thoughts. She doubted it as he was so reserved with his emotions, but she couldn't be sure. _Never_ , she thought back, turning her head to kiss him and hoping he could sense her response. _Never leaving you. Never, ever leaving you._

He whispered in her ear something that she was sure was in his native tongue and then began to move within her, thrusting with almost a bruising intensity. Her heart broke to feel the anguish in his thoughts and emotions. She held him tightly and murmured reassurances to him, and he came quickly with a strangled cry of her name. She felt his heart pound against her chest as he panted, trying to catch his breath.

Eventually he set her down and pulled up his underpants and trousers. Meanwhile, she quickly dressed in her shirt and knickers, not bothering with the rest.

He sank to sit on the floor, and when she moved to kneel in front of him, he pulled her into his lap and held her tightly, as if he were afraid she would disappear if he let go.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked her softly.

"No," she whispered to him and kissed his temple. "No, you didn't hurt me."

"I am sorry, Rose," he said, grief evident in his voice. "I am so, so sorry."

"For this? You don't need to be sorry. I wanted this as much as you did."

He shook his head. "No. Well, yes," he corrected himself, "you don't deserve to be shagged against a wall like that. But I meant for everything. I don't deserve you."

She took his face in her hands and looked deeply into his eyes. "I told you I wanted it," she said. "I love you. And I believe in you."

"You always have, haven't you? Even when I haven't deserved it."

"Oh, Doctor," she said, caressing his face. "You have _always_ deserved it."

His eyes glistened. "Oh, Rose Tyler, I love you so, so much."

~oOo~

"It was horrible," the Doctor said quietly. "Imagine the worst thing you can think of and multiply it by a billion and you wouldn't even come close."

After their encounter in the lab, she had taken his hand and led him back to the house, back to their bedroom and back to bed. They were now sitting in bed under the duvet, propped up by pillows and holding hands with her head resting on his shoulder. By unspoken agreement they both faced forward, so he didn't have to meet her eyes as he spoke. She knew it was difficult enough for him to talk about the War without the added pressure of seeing her look at him at the same time.

"No one knew how long it went on," he continued. "As you measure time, centuries, probably. Possibly much longer."

"How could you not know?" she asked.

"It was a war throughout Time, Rose," he said. "In all of time, future and past, and encompassing all of the universe. The Daleks had managed to steal the secret of time travel from us and were using it to wage war on fronts all across the cosmos. They had one objective, the same objective that they'd always had since their creation, to be the sole intelligent life form in the universe.

"There had been Time Wars before. Time sensitive species were no different than anyone else; they had wars over territory and resources and god images and how another species pronounced the word for the color blue. But never had a war been so all-encompassing, containing all of time and space within it.

“The Time Lords and the Daleks were fairly evenly matched. What the Time Lords lacked in ruthlessness and bloodlust, we more than made up for in technology.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “And then it happened. Time itself became a weapon. Time began to play a role like it had never played before or since. Someone on one side or the other, I never found out who, came up with the brilliant idea that battles already fought could be fought again and their outcome changed. Both sides began to study the battles they had lost, conduct a post-match analysis if you will, and then go back in time to change what happened.

"Over and over and over, the same battle would be fought. The Daleks would win, and then we would go back and change the key thing that led to our defeat, bringing victory to the battle. Then the Daleks would go back in time, rewriting time and changing things so that they would win again. The battles raged on and on and on and spread from planet to planet, forward and backward in time, with Daleks and Time Lords alike rewriting time to suit themselves and leaving destruction and chaos in their wake. The war was sweeping through all time and space and turning the entire universe into Hell.

"The war spread from galaxy to galaxy. Eventually the Time Lords suffered so many losses that they began resurrecting people from the Matrix to fight in the war. Even Rassilon, the Time Lord's founder, was resurrected in the belief that he could lead the Time Lords to victory, but the losses continued to mount. No matter what we did, planet after planet fell to the Daleks, their entire populations slaughtered.

“I was on the front lines when we received word that the Daleks had invaded Gallifrey. They had broken through our defenses and had invaded Arcadia, and we needed to return and defend it. Nowhere was the war more horrific than Arcadia. I was there, at the key battle. The last day of the war, if you could call it a day as it seemed to go on forever. The battle for Arcadia continued to be fought over and over and over, with the same people dying again and again and again. But these were Time Lords fighting the Daleks, and they could remember even after time had been rewritten. They remembered dying; they experienced the pain of death over and over and over. I witnessed…." His voice broke, and he closed his eyes as he was swept into his memories. "I saw friends, family, little children die right in front of me over and over and over again and I was completely powerless to stop it. Finally, something broke within me and I said ‘no more’.” 

He opened his eyes. “When Arcadia fell, the Daleks invaded the Capitol and were searching for the one thing that could give them ultimate victory over not only the Time Lords but over the universe itself. The Eye of Harmony.

"I told you before about the Eye. It was a collapsing star–a star slowly turning into a black hole that had been balanced in such a way that it was an unlimited source of energy not just for Gallifrey, but for Time Lords and their TARDISes no matter where or when they were. If the Daleks had gotten ahold of that…"

His voice trailed off. Rose squeezed his hand comfortingly, and after a moment he took a deep breath and continued.

"What I didn't know was that Rassilon had put together a plan that would end the War once and for all. He called it the Final Sanction. He would create a paradox large enough that it would rip apart the Time Vortex itself, allowing the Time Lords to survive as pure consciousness while destroying all of the rest of Creation. When I entered the Panopticon, it had just been put to a vote. Rassilon's plan was almost unanimously approved by the High Council, with only a handful of dissenters.

"I was the only one of the dissenters with a TARDIS, so I knew I was the only one capable of stopping him. I stole a weapon called The Moment and destroyed Gallifrey and the Eye with it. Then I Time Locked both Gallifrey and the War itself so that no one could time travel into or out of it. With the whole of Gallifrey from beginning to end trapped within the Time Lock, Gallifrey and the Time Lords retreated into the realm of legend and myth and there they will stay for eternity."

At this he stopped, and they sat quietly hand in hand for a long time. Sunlight was streaming through the open window of their bedroom, and in the distance Rose could hear birds singing. There was something obscene about that, that life was going on as always, oblivious to what he had done to save it. But then that's why he had done it, she realized, so that life could continue just like this, untouched by the War that had cost him so much.

"I wasn't meant to survive, you know," he eventually said. "I never intended to survive. In fact, after the War was over I did my level best to try not to.

"And then I met a girl. A silly little nineteen year old girl with bleached blonde hair and a dead-end job that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time." For the first time since they had begun talking he glanced at her, and with it he gave her a small smile. "And it turned out the girl wasn't so silly after all. She had a quick mind; she was smart and brave and curious and could see things I didn't see, like the London Eye for example. And within twenty-four hours she had managed to save my life. And all of a sudden I didn't want to die anymore."

He turned to face her directly and raised one hand to caress her face with the backs of his fingers. "He was right, you know. You do make me better. You always have, ever since the moment I met you. To quote an old movie, you make me want to be a better man."

"Well, we're even then," she said, meeting his eyes. "Because from the moment I met you, you changed my life. You taught me that there was more to life than beans on toast and Friday nights at the local. You showed me that I could be more than just a shop girl with no A-levels, and you taught me to stand up for what's right no matter how tough it is."

She took his face in her hands and gently kissed him before resting her forehead on his. She could hear him telepathically projecting his love for her and could feel it all the way down to her bones.

"Doctor," she whispered, trying to send her love for him back through the link he had created, "you make me better, too."


	41. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, nothing you recognize belongs to me.

**Epilogue**

**Three months later**

The Doctor stood on a dark, snowy street, staring arrogantly at Adelaide Brooke.

Captain Brooke asked hesitantly, “You saved us?”

The Doctor strutted toward her, grinning. “Just think, though. Your daughter and your daughter’s daughter… you can see them again. Family reunion.”

She shook her head. “But I’m supposed to be dead.”

He smiled smugly. “Not anymore.”

“But… Susie, my granddaughter…” she said, “the person she’s supposed to become might never exist now.”

“Nah.” The Doctor sighed deeply. “Captain Adelaide can inspire her face to face. Different details, but the story’s the same.”

“You can’t know that!” she protested. “And if my family changes… the whole of history could change!”

The Doctor stopped smiling.

Adelaide continued. “The future of the human race – no one should have that much power!”

“Tough,” he responded coldly.

She backed away from him in horror. “You should have left us there,” she realized aloud.

“Adelaide, I’ve done this sort of thing before. In small waves, saved some little people. But never someone as important as you. Ooh, I’m good.”

“Little people?” she said angrily, her rage increasing as she continued. “What, like Mia and Yuri? Who decides they’re so unimportant. You?

“For a long time now, I thought I was just a survivor, but I’m not,” he said, returning her anger. “I’m the winner. That’s who I am. Time Lord Victorious.”

“And there’s no one to stop you,” she said, recoiling from him.

“No.”

“This is wrong, Doctor,” she responded. “I don’t care who you are. The Time Lord Victorious is wrong.” 

“That’s for me to decide,” he said coldly. After a long pause, he continued with false cheerfulness. “Now, you’d better get home. Oh, it’s all locked up.” He pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. “You’ve been away. Still, that’s easy.” 

Pointing his sonic at the door, he unlocked it. The door swung open, and he put his sonic away.

“All yours.”

“Is there nothing you can’t do?” she said, fear and uncertainty in her voice.

“Not anymore,” he told her flatly.

As Adelaide walked to her door, the Doctor turned and walked towards the TARDIS. 

_Who does she think she is_ , he thought angrily. _I saved her. I SAVED her. And I can save anyone. Do anything. It’s my choice. My RIGHT, as the Last of the Time Lords. The Time Lord Victorious._

Caught up in his mental diatribe, he missed Captain Brooke pulling her gun out of her holster as she entered her house and closed the door.

At the sound of a gunshot, the Doctor turned and slumped against the TARDIS. Shock and horror were written on his face at the realization of Adelaide Brooke’s suicide.

“I’ve gone too far,” he said quietly to himself.

As he stared down the street, he spotted Ood Sigma under a lamppost. He sunk to his knees.

“Is this it?” he asked tearfully. “My death?” As the Ood didn’t respond, he continued. “Is it time?”

When the Ood vanished, the Time Lord stood and turned to the TARDIS, with a quick glance back at Adelaide’s home. His hands shaking, he pulled his key from his pocket and fled inside. He crossed to the console, his eyes unseeing. Above him, behind him, surrounding him, he could hear the toll of the Cloister Bell as it echoed through the TARDIS.

“No!” he shouted.

~oOo~

In a bedroom in a centuries-old farmhouse on the outskirts of Cardiff, Wales, on a different Earth in a different universe, the Doctor tossed and turned in bed while in the midst of a nightmare. After a moment, the movements turned into thrashing.

“No!” he shouted. 

Heart pounding and panting heavily, he shot up to a seated position, his eyes filled with fright and horror. His shout and the sudden movement of the bed woke Rose from a sound sleep. 

“What? What is it?” she cried and reached for his right hand. It felt as if it were on fire.

He turned to her, staring at her wild eyed, hair sticking up every which way, the pain in his hand and arm reflected in his face. He tried to catch his breath and slow his heart rate.

“Oh, Rose,” he whispered, shaking his head, his expression serious and worried and still somewhat frightened. “He did something bad.”


End file.
